Fools rush in where angels fear to tread
by Yorae Rasante
Summary: And the angels are all in heaven, but few of the fools are dead. While reading the Forbidden Scroll, Naruto reads an extra entry and unlocks a power considered lost. Is it a coincidence, or does the awakening of a Persona user forewarns a disaster once more?
1. Awakening the Persona

"What are we doing here, daddy?" the blonde asked, worried for the person on the other side of the one-way mirror. There, dressed in his customary orange jacket and pants, was another blond of her class, whisker marks plainly visible.  
Yes, she barely talked with the boy, but he was still her classmate.

"How is your relationship with him, Ino?" Yamanaka Inoichi asked seriously. It was clear something serious had happened to the boy, since her father was never that serious around her.

But… why was the boy himself looking calmer than she had ever seen him before?

"Inexistent." Ino said, trying to act professional. She was a genin now, and she was clearly expected to act as one for now from her father's actions. "All I know about him is that he has a crush on Sakura, plays pranks and was doing badly in class. Everything else is hearsay."

"Tell me this hearsay." Inoichi requested, still in a neutral tone.

"That he is an orphan. That he is a bad person and should be avoided. That he has anger problems and everyone should avoid making him angry. Personally I don't believe in anything but the orphan part. He was too much of a happy clown all the time we have been in the same class to believe he can be like that."

Inoichi just nodded. "He is an orphan, yes. However, there is a deeper reason for his 'happy clown' antics, as you put them."

Ino blinked. She… never thought much about what could be behind his actions. Something she would probably feel bad for later, since Yamanakas were supposed to be specialists in the mind.

"And how do your classmates respond to this?"

"They usually avoid him. Some say nasty words to drive him away from them. Sakura is sometimes physical in her rejections when he asks her on dates, but usually just avoids him too."

"Funny, in my time being considered a 'bad boy that should be avoided' would get him lots of girls." Her father said jokingly. "And you?" he asked after a cough.

"I was neutral to him. Didn't avoid but didn't try to become friends either. Some words of chastisement when he landed the whole class in trouble with his pranks, tops."

"I see." She didn't hear disappointment in his voice, but didn't hear approval either.

"Tell me Ino, when you get that treatment you described, and without a family to turn to, how would you feel?"

"…lonely…" Ino replied, a little ashamed. "Would try to do something to get some attention."

"Even being laughed at or screamed at was probably good enough for him." Inoichi agreed.

"So that's hy he was the class clown…"

But how was this related to…

"Daddy, did he do something bad for attention? Something… nastier than pranks?"

"Many would." He replied, looking at the boy. "But not him. No, his problem was that _someone_ gave him attention."

Her stomach fell like a stone. She wasn't the most attentive of people, but she was always trying to stop any bullying. It is how she initially became friends with Sakura. Avoidance was one thing, but…

"Positive attention."

The shame subsided, but her blood still ran hot.

Manipulation.

Someone tried to manipulate him into doing something bad for approval.

"Who was it? What did they make him do?"

"Your ex-teacher Touji Mizuki. Convinced him to steal the Scroll of Forbidden Seals from the Hokage under the excuse of it being part of a substitute test for graduating."

"What will happen to him?" Her heart went to Naruto. He was a bit annoying with his pranks, but now she saw his reason for doing them. Also, they had always been taught to trust their teachers, having this trust betrayed like that…

"Well, he succeeded in stealing the scroll from the Hokage himself, under what he believed to be orders, so the Hokage would have considered this as enough for graduating as a future infiltration specialist. Touji was arrested thanks to your other teacher, Umino Iruka, who assisted Naruto-kun."

"Uh, daddy, don't you mean Naruto assisted Umino-sensei?"

Inoichi gave her a joking smile. "The other reason he graduated."

Ino was… to surprised was putting it mildly. Naruto defeated Mizuki-sen—Mizuki by himself? Even with some assistance that was impressive…

"But why tell me daddy? Why bring me here?"

"Because of what he did after it." Inoichi replied. "Touji's lie also included a way to avoid Naruto telling anyone about it until he had time to steal the scroll from him: Naruto had to learn at least one jutsu from the scroll before being found by another teacher."

"That's impossible. Even if he succeeded, they are dangerous!"

"Which is what Touji was going for. But it bit him back, for Naruto-kun succeeded not once, but twice."

The girl was surprised. Naruto, amongst the worse of the class, learned not one, but two techniques in a couple of hours? And if they had been sealed they weren't your run-of-the-mill techniques either…

"The first was a solid clone technique that takes a lot from the user. He used it masterfully to defeat Mizuki…"

Ino blinked. He defeated a chuunin with… clones?

"And after getting home, to perform the second one."

She stiffened. Finally, the reason she was there.

"He summoned his Persona."

Ino turned quickly to the boy. The boy sitting more in peace than she ever saw him do.

Inoichi knew he didn't need to say anything else.

"A-are you sure he is sane?"

"Yes. He was successful. Which is why you are here. We feel he would be more comfortable talking about it with someone his own age."

She took a deep breath, preparing herself mentally. It was hard to believe that, after all the Yamanakas that failed the Persona Summoning Ritual…

IIIII

Naruto was bored. He had already told everything that happened to the old man Hokage, why was he still waiting there?

Because the people that created the ritual deserve to know about it, yeah… He still felt like a prisoner though.

He briefly wondered what would happen if they disapproved of him, would the little guy be locked away again? _Could_ it be locked away again? What would happen to his mind if they did this?

All these thoughts and many more went through his mind as he resisted the urge to summon his persona. It was a bit tiring, but he felt much more comfortable with it around.

And then, she entered the room.

"Ino? What are you doing here?"

The blond girl entered quietly, a white labcoat covering her usually purple clothes, a clipboard on her hand. A small smile was on her lips, but her pale complexion made it clear it was as much for her nerves as to calm him.

"Hello Naruto. I'm... well, I'm a Yamanaka, and we are sort of the head specialists on the village, so… that is…"

"So you are the village shrinks and you are going to examine me?" he said, trying to help.

"Yeah, so…"

Ino was nervous. She knew that. And Naruto clearly noticed it from the frown on his face.

"Ino, are you alright? You're not acting like yourself."

"Y-yes, I mean…" she took a deep breath, before admitting: "No, no I'm not alright. This is my first time talking with someone professionally like this that is not my father, he is watching me make a fool of myself, and you probably have no idea how important what you did is for my clan, do you?"

"Sorry," he admitted, scratching the back of his head while smiling, "not a clue."

Ino couldn't resist it, she sighed.

"Naruto, through the years, tens of Yamanakas tried doing what you did, and each and every time they failed, many going mad and violent in the process."

"Uhm, sorry, I didn't do anything special, just followed the instructions…"

Ino sighed, putting her face between her hands in frustration.

"Look, maybe if you give me a list of questions, I could try it again and—"

"No!" Ino screamed, jumping from her seat. "Are you crazy? What did I just say about people going mad doing it?"

"But how else am I going to be able to talk to that Igor guy again? I mean, he did say we were somewhere between awake and asleep, but—"

"Wait! Back up! Who?"

"The guy that we talk to when we use the ritual? Well, more like are sent to him from what he said, but... Man, it's hard to explain." He started scratching the back of his head again, trying to force himself to put in words what happened.

"Tell me everything that happened when you did it." Ino ordered, grabbing her pen and clipboard tightly. "_Everything!_"

"Ok, ok, geez…"

IIIII

So, I had just finished learning the Kage Bunshin, you see, and was going to train with it so it was perfect… but while I was rerolling the scroll, I saw the description for this ritual thing. It seemed very easy, and… Well, I had just learned Kage Bunshin, so I thought "why not"?

I was going to try it when Iruka sensei appeared, so I forgot it for a while… But then I got home and couldn't sleep with all that happened, and then remembered that I never did do it. So, I jumped up and tried it.

I had to be relaxed, so I tried that leaf exercise they give us at the beginning of the academy. It always made me a bit sleepy… Well, before falling asleep, I did the technique.

At first nothing happened, but then after a while I felt something like a shock, and something pulling on my head, hard! Next thing I saw was darkness.

When I woke up, I was inside something that looked like a sewer. There were walls made of stone bricks and water reaching past my ankles. The water was clean though, and there were yellow lights here and there. So, having no idea what happened, I started walking…

It was a labyrinth.

Eventally, I reached a big room, the only place that wasn't more tunnels for hours, so I was pretty sure there was going to be an exit there. That's when I heard his voice…

"It's useless."

Or rather, _my_ voice.

I turned around, surprised, and saw another me. Me as I was when I was younger.

"Who… who are you?" I asked, but I already knew.

Well, his answer still surprised me.

"I am you. The real you.  
I am a shadow. The true self."

"O…kay… And what are you doing here?"

"Me?" my shadow asked, he seemed surprised. "I live here. You are the one that came to me."

"Oh… right. Something about that jutsu to unleash my true self in battle or something?"

"Yes… Like you could." He said, laughing at me.

"What you say? You of all people are underestimating me too?"

"What is there to underestimate? You suck and you know it!" I admit, that coming from him stung me a bit, but I learned to deal with it. But what I didn't expect was for him to say "See? This is what I am talking about!"

"What _are_ you talking about?"

"How you'd rather hide your true self here to pretend there is no problem. How you plaster that smile on your face like a mask to pretend you are not hurt by the way everyone treates you. How you scream you are going to be Hokage even though you know you are a terrible ninja.  
How you pretend you don't want to make everyone around you suffer like you do."

I held my breath. Not because he was right, I couldn't deny it, but because… well, as I said to him,

"This is the most stupid thing I ever heard."

The little guy was acting like I struck him, but then started smiling. It was creepy.

"So you deny it? Even you deny me?"

I held my breath, how to explain it? The guy claimed to be me, but if he was he would already know, right?

But for some reason, I felt that it coming from me was much more important than just knowing it.

"Look, I won't deny I hate how I am treated by everyone. How my actions are fake many times so people don't know how much it hurts when they ignore me. How for a while I wanted them to suffer for how sad they made me. But…  
But if I go that route, they win. They'd be justified in what they did. And I got someone that believes in me now. By doing that, I'd just throw that trust away.  
It is not that I deny what you said. But… I decided to keep going forward, despite that. Or maybe because of that. Become better than anyone. Shove in the faces of those that made me suffer how I am better than them. You know what I'm saying?"

It was silent. Like the kid was trying to swallow what I said. Then he gave me a sad smile.

"This was supposed to be a battle of wills."

"Uh?" was the only thing I could say.

"But you already won."

I didn't understand anything anymore. The next thing I remember, the kid…transformed and entered me.

Then a flash of light, and I was inside a blue room.

It was like a bar, with a singing woman and a piano. And in the middle, there was a table with a free chair in front of a man.

This man, he had a long nose, and seemed to be a bit hunchback. His eyes were big, too. But… I just knew he wasn't a bad person. So I sat in front of him.

He was _really_ polite. He bid me welcome and said it was a pleasure to meet me. He said his name was Igor, and that that place existed between "dream and reality, mind and matter".

I didn't get it, but he said that was fine for now.

He said I now could summon my Persona, a manifestation of my psyche.

Well, he then said people lived by wearing masks, and that people wear those masks when going through hard times. And... that I now had the power to summon my mask. My Persona.

Then he said my power was weak.

I couldn't argue, since I had no idea what power that was. Still don't, even if I can use it now.

Still tried to, though.

So he laughed, and just said my power would grow as I dealt with other people.

Then… he sent me back. Said that I would go back by myself next time we met, but I have no idea how, so…

IIIII

After that, they just sit there quietly, not knowing much how to say.

"So… you got the ultimate Yamanaka hiden: summoning your Persona… through meeting your shadow and accepting it."

"Seems like it." Naruto answered.

"Makes sense so many people failed then. It was your dark side, all that you dislike about yourself and try to hide away, personified. I… don't think many would just accept it."

"Probaly. He seemed really surprised I got along with him so easily, seemed like he was trying to bully me into a fight."

Ino nodded. Made sense, the shadow had said it should have been a battle of wills. Probably a battle for dominance, only the winner getting out… and unless accepted, nothing they could do by themselves could stop the shadow.

"How does it feel?" Ino asked, a bit awkwardly.

"Nice. It is like… you are just meeting a new person that completely understands you. I mean, in a way it _is_ you, so… It's hard to explain…"

"I guess… Uhm, can I see it?"

"Sure."

Naruto then called for the spirit, materializing it in the real world.

In front of Ino's eyes, a blue mist started appearing on Naruto's lap, and soon the shape of a small, two-tailed orange fox appeared.

"Cute…"

The fox jumped down from Naruto's lap to stand in front of the girl, who accepted the invitation and started petting it.

"You know Ino, you're not as bad as I thought…"

"What is that supposed to mean?" the girl replied angrily, making both the fox and the boy too nervous to run away.

"Well… actually, I don't know much how you are… All I know about you is that you're that girl that is always competing with Sakura-chan."

"And all I know about you is that you're that guy that plays pranks instead of studying and has a crush on Sakura." Ino replied serious, before giving him a smile. "So, why don't we know each other better? They say you can never have too many friends."

The fox under her hand disappeared in the poof of a blue mist, while Naruto looked at her with eyes wide.

"Y-you… want to be my friend?"

The way his voice was shaky was almost a slap on the blond girl's face, she had to resist making a wince at his eagerness. Yes, as she told his father, everyone avoided him, so she was probably the first person their age that he would call a friend.

Even Kiba, Shikamaru and Chouji, who sometimes escaped class with him, were probably little more than acquaintances as far as he could tell, with Shikamaru and Chouji's just doing things by themselves and Kiba always making fun of him. Someone who only knew friendship from watching others probably wouldn't think they could be considered forms of friendship too.

But maybe they did. She would talk with them after this and try to figure out what they really thought of the boy.

Speaking of which…

"Sure. I don't see why not." She answered with a smile.

"Great!" Naruto answered with a smile. A different smile, somehow, and from what she remembered from his talk with his shadow, a real one.

IIIII

And so, for a while they talked.

"Really? I wouldn't take you for a gardener. Well, not that many would take my father for one either, but we still have the town's greater flower shop."

"Really? Think he could give me tips someday?"

"Hey, I was raised among those flowers! I know most of the things he does!"

…

"Wait, so you like Sakura because she was lonely at first?"

"Yeah, she was once in the same boat as me, but unlike me she got what I wanted. I really appreciate this in her."

"Heh, I remember. Ami was bullying her and I helped Sakura. I miss when we were friends…"

"What happened?"

"Sakura found out I liked Sasuke too, and decided to break our friendship because we were 'rivals in love'…"

"That's… a bit stupid…"

"I know! But she was the one who did it, what choice did I have?"

…

"You see, you need to balance your calories intake to the amount of work you do. Too much and you get fat, not enough and you get skinny."

"Wouldn't it be better to just have more exercises then? I mean, this way you keep yourself thin but also get stronger."

"But if you exercise too much without building up to it you start aching, and that means you will have trouble doing more exercise later."

"Uhm… this is harder than I thought…"

"Speaking of it, what is _your_ training regime? I mean, are you increasing it properly?"

"...Increasing it?"

All the while, Inoichi was watching. Naruto seemed to be sane and healthy, and seemed like he would benefit from a friendship with Ino.

He'd still crush him like a grape, Persona and Kyuubi or not, if he ever hurt his daughter though.


	2. Friends, old and new

The next day, already cleared to get home, Naruto should be annoyed for having to spend the previous day in the ANBU headquarters. But… he wasn't. He was in fact pretty happy, since he now had a friend.

Oh well. For today, he had to take a picture for his ninja identification!

IIIII

Ino had no trouble finding Shikamaru and Chouji. They knew each other since they were kids thanks to their parents being friends. The two were in the same place as usual, the pineapple-head just lying on the ground as he watched the clouds and his big-bodied friend ate a snack nearby.

"There you two are!"

"Hello Ino." Chouji said cordially.

"What do you want today?" Shikamaru was… less cordial.

Ino decided to ignore this… for now.

"Shut up Shikamaru, this is important."

"Just say it and leave us alone."

Calm down Ino. You need to talk to them. You can't talk properly if you maim them first.

"What do you two think about Naruto?"

The two boys looked at the girl, eyes wide. Then at each other to check if they heard the same thing. Then back to the girl.

"Why are you asking?" Shikamaru asked in a false bored tone. "Decided to give up on Sasuke?"

"No, nothing like that." Ino answered. She knew they would think so at first, so she wasn't that embarrassed by the question.

"Then why do you ask?"

"Naruto did something stupid after graduating and ended up being my first patient," she replied.

Shikamaru was a bit surprised, but didn't show it. She said "graduating", not "graduation". Did that mean he passed, but he was sure he had failed…

"Is he alright?" Chouji asked, a bit worried and not noticing the things Shikamaru did.

"Yes, but the point was that thanks to this we became friends."

"I thought you gave up on making new friends after the whole Sakura thing."

"Nevermind that." Ino said quickly. "What worried me was how he acted when I asked if he waned to try being friends."

"Embarrassed? He is a bit immature, so he probably never thought of having a female friend." Shikamaru guessed.

"No, that would have been ok. He acted… like he never had a friend before."

An awkward silence followed that.

"I consider Naruto a friend…" Chouji tried to say, but he felt a bit hurt by the implication that Naruto didn't think so.

"He is a troublesome guy, but has a good heart."

That was as good an admission as she was going to get from him.

"Did either of you ever told him that?"

"You need to?" Chouji asked surprised.

"Chouji, you act friendly with everyone that doesn't insult you or Shikamaru, and Shikamaru is a lazy bum who just walks silently until somewhere he can watch the sky unless someone pulls him from it. Naruto for as loud as he is has a huge inferiority complex, shown on how he always says he is going to be Hokage. Not only that, besides when he skips classes with you guys no one in class interacts with him more than in passing. He _needs_ some actual assurance. If you just escape from classes and then practically ditch him, he will think you just hang out with him to ditch classes and that's it."

"And the way Kiba likes teasing him, he won't see him as a friend either. He never had friendly banter before."

"Exactly."

As soon as she said that, Shikamaru stood up.

"Where are you going?" Ino asked, surprised.

"Look for Kiba. Doubt he would listen to you on this."

"But—"

"Look, you said he graduated, right? That means we have the team assignment day to fix this misunderstanding."

"This isn't an excuse, is it?"

"Don't worry, I know that you won't leave us alone until we get this settled. Even if you did, I wouldn't be able to enjoy the clouds as much with this in my head. Thoublesome blonds…"

IIIII

"You are not my boss anymore! From now one, you are my rival!"

Naruto couldn't help but smile at that. That little speech of his really got the kid fired up. But… rival…

"Konohamaru!" he screamed to the retreating child, "We are still friends, right?"

The little boy blinked in surprise, then replied with a smile. "Of course!"

Then he ran away.

Naruto breathed with relief. He didn't want to end like Ino and Sakura.

Speaking of the two… Now that he knew about them…

IIIII

The day of the team assignment. Naruto was still happy, even if he didn't see Ino until then she was sure to appear on that day, being top of the class and all.

Shikamaru was looking at him a bit weird when he arrived, though. As if he was holding himself from asking something.

Well, nevermind. He quickly chose a place to sit down, near the front.

And then, the sound of footsteps of people running.

"Goal!" yelled both Sakura and Ino as they arrived.

Naruto turned as they argued about who arrived first, and couldn't help but think about what Ino told him about they once being friends…

Then Sakura went to where he was!

"Hey, Sakura-chan! Hey Ino!"

Sakura just pushed Naruto aside… before noticing what he said.

"Wait… did you just say hi to _Ino_?"

"Uhm, yeah?" Naruto said from the ground. "Why?"

"Don't worry Sakura, we are just friends. No need to be _jealous_." Ino said in a joking tone.

"Me? Jealous of _Naruto_? As if!"

Naruto took this time to sit back in his place, but he was clearly hurt by his words.

"You could always be jealous of Ino, you know" said Shikamaru of all people.

"W-what?" spluttered Sakura.

Ino ran with it.

"Oh, I'm grateful Sakura, but I like boys, I'm sorry."

Naruto had to hold himself not to laugh. The rest of the class didn't even try holding back their laughter.

"N-no! I like Sasuke-kun!"

"Every girl here likes Sasuke-kun though. He is the perfect beard…"

"I'm not a lesbian!"

"Hey Sakura-chan, I believe you! Want to go on a date later?"

Her answer was to clonk his head… then notice where he was. Again.

"Hey Naruto, get out of there! I want to sit there!"

"Ok…" Naruto said a bit sadly, but gladly moved to the middle of the table so Sakura could take his old position.

"No, you idiot! I want to sit beside Sasuke-kun!"

Confused, Naruto looked to his other side… and faced Sasuke.

"Gah! When did you get there?"

"…I was here before you sat down."

"You seriously didn't notice?" asked Sakura, frustrated. "Anyway, get out of there so I can sit beside Sasuke-kun!"

"And why you should be the one to sit beside him, Forehead?"

"Because I arrived first!"

"No, I arrived first!" said another girl.

"No, I did!"

"No, me!"

"Girls, girls, girls…" said Naruto appeasingly."It doesn't matter who arrived first, only who sat beside him first. Which, gasp, was me."

"And why would you want to—" Sakura began angrily before Ino interrupted:

"Did you just _say_ 'gasp'?"

"But I am a generous man… so I will relinquish my place for… I don't know, the one of you willing to trade more for it."

"**WHAT?**" screamed all girls angrily at once.

Sasuke waited a bit then asked, confused:

"Wait, are you really auctioning the… 'privilege' of sitting besides me?"

"Yup." Naruto replied with a smirk.

"…I want half the money." Sasuke said, after a while

"What?" Naruto exclaimed… which for Naruto is "shouted".

"I can always to somewhere else…"

"Fine, fine! You get half the money! Geez…"

Sasuke gave a satisfied smirk of his own. If he was going to suffer, at least he was going to get something from it.

"I don't get it, aren't you rich?"

"It's the principle of the thing."

IIIII

In the end, Sakura won, paying all the money she had taken for lunch. She judged it was a worthy price… until Naruto rested his butt on her _other_ side.

And so Iruka arrived and the teams were divided.

"Team 7: Uzumaki Naruto,"

'Hm, I wonder who will be on my team… I hope Sakura-chan and Ino.'

"Haruno Sakura,"

"No!" Sakura moaned in disbelief of her bad luck.

'Yes! One more!'

"and Sasuke Uchiha!"

"Yes!"

"WHAT?"

"What's wrong Naruto?" asked the teacher with a sigh.

"Look, I admit he is not so bad as I though, but why am I on the same team as him?" Naruto asked, genuinely curious.

"Sasuke's grades where the best amongst those who passed…"

"Wait, what? But Ino told me hers were the best!"

"Well, yes, hers were the best grade overall, but each grade has a different weight so in the end Sasuke ended up best.  
Anyways, your grades… were the worst amongst the ones who passed, so we put you together to balance the teams."

Naruto fumed as the others laughed at him, but… he didn't really pass by grade, so it made sense he would be the worst.

"Don't get in my way, deadlast." Sasuke said cooly.

He would be angry, but…

"Did you just tell a joke? Iruka-sensei, call am ambulance! Sasuke told a joke!"

Everybody laughed. Even Sasuke let escape a small smirk.

"Team eight," Iruka continued…

IIIII

"Sasuke-kun is already gone? I thought that since we are of the same team we could have lunch together…" Sakura complained to herself.

"Hey Sakura-chan! Since we are of the same team, we could have lunch together!" Naruto arrived, coincidentally.

"And why would I have lunch with _you_?" Sakura replied, ignoring her plans with Sasuke had been exactly that.

"But, but we are of the same team…"

"You are irritating." Sakura replied, coldly. She then started leaving looking for Sasuke…

And right then Naruto felt a nudge under his hand and the feeling of soft fur.

He got it. He had no reason to just stand to this, even if the person was Sakura-chan.

"I don't know, I think your Sasuke-kun gets better along with me than with you."

"What you say?" Sakura said, turning around angrily.

"I don't know, that's just an impression I got today. I mean, he paid no attention to you but not just we did business but he even joked. Maybe, just maybe you'd have more chance spending time with him if you tried an excuse of doing it as a team than just following around and mentioning the team only as lip-service. But well, I better get going, don't want to annoy you anymore."

Sakura had no idea what to say as a smiling Naruto left her. But without her knowing, as he left Naruto's smile fell down into a frown.

Why did he say that? Was that really what his persona was pulling him to do? Well, he would have done the same to anyone else but Sakura-chan earlier anyway, but… _she was Sakura-chan_!

Maybe it as having someone that appreciated his company for comparison?

"There you are!"

And speak of the devil.

"We were looking for you three!" Ino said, followed by her team and… Kiba's? "…Where's Sasuke-kun?"

"Dunno, probably went home to get lunch." Naruto answered. He did not want to think of the guy right now.

"Oh, shame. We were thinking about having a group lunch with our three teams. What about you two?"

"Well, I'm game! What about you, Sakura-chan?"

"U-uh?" Sakura replied, surprised. "N-no, thanks. I… have to think about something…"

"Suit yourself Forehead. Come on Naruto!"

"Sure," he replied with a shrug before following the other six.

Sakura just watched them leave, more confused than anything.

IIIII

"What happened between you and Sakura?" Ino asked worried as soon as she was out of sight.

"She… kind of treated me badly again. Before I noticed, I was saying things like a joke to hurt her back. It's not the first time I did it, but not to Sakura-chan…"

Ino digested it for a bit.

"Well, the technique is supposed to make you more true to yourself. Maybe it just made you treat her like you would anyone else."

"Maybe…"

The two didn't notice Kiba and Akamaru looking at them suspiciously.

IIIII

Sakura was… confused. Was Naruto right? Was she just an annoyance to Sasuke-kun?

She couldn't deny he didn't treat her any better than any other girl in class, but… Well, he didn't interact with any other girl in class unless they interacted with him first…

But that wasn't much of a point for her either…

Well, no reason to be impatient. She had him all for her from now on… She could show him why she was the better choice for him…

And what did she have that the others didn't? As much as she wanted to deny it, she wasn't amongst the best looking of the class. The only feature she had that differentiated her was her forehead…

Even Naruto of all people interacted with Sasuke better than her.

She had these kinds of thoughts until lunchtime was over.

Nothing happened that would make her think anything better of herself

IIIII

"Hey Naruto, Ino, what was it about a technique that made the loser tell Sakura what she should have been told a long time ago?"

Ouch. That hurt a bit. But before he could say anything back…

"Kiba, you promised to behave!"

"About Sasuke being there. Besides, this is just friendly banter, Naruto knows I don't mean anything by it."

He… didn't?

"Insulting people is friendly?" Ino replied.

"It's just friendly banter. Don't you and Sakura do it all the time?"

"I've known Shikamaru and Chouji for years and they never did this" she said, trying to drive the conversation away from herself and Sakura, Naruto thought.

"I don't expect you to understand the complexities of male friendship."

"'Complexities'? I didn't expect you from all people to know that word."

"Ouch. You see? You're already good at it." Kiba answered with a laugh. "But seriously, what about this technique?"

"How did you hear about it? We were talking quietly!"

"Inuzuka hearing is good. So, what about this technique?"

"What is it to you?"

"Naruto is a friend of mine."

"I am?" Naruto interrupted.

"You are," said Shikamaru. Chouji nodded.

This was not part of the plan, but the best plans of mice and men and all that.

"But… you guys always left right after we left the school…"

Shikamaru shrugged. "I'm just like that. Just ask Chouji."

The big boy just smiled.

Hinata and Shino just looked at the scene awkwardly.

"Anyways, about the technique?"

"Naruto used a Yamanaka technique by accident. Can't tell any more, but he seems to be ok if a bit more expressive."

"A more expressive Naruto? We are so boned…" Kiba joked.

"Anything more is his to tell."

"Wait, really?" Naruto said, surprised.

"What?" Ino asked.

"Isn't it your family technique? Shouldn't I keep it a secret?"

"Nah. My father said that as long as you don't tell anyone how to get it it should be no problem. Since you now know how dangerous that can be…"

"R-right." Naruto gulped. He had no idea how dangerous the technique was when he used it, he was lucky he had succeeded.

"How did you learn a dangerous Yamanaka technique?" Shikamaru asked.

"Oh, well, it all started when I failed the genin exam…"

…

"Wait, wait!" Kiba said after the story was over. "You! Took down a chuunin. By yourself."

"With a bunch of clones, but yes."

"But… but you were the deadlast! Even after that?"

"Dude, I passed but my grades sucked."

"But you defeated a chuunin!"

"Well it's too late for me to complain. I was happy enough having passed at the time."

"But…"

"This second technique," Shikamaru interrupted, "what does it do?"

"It can summon the power of my personality as a two-tailed fox kit."

Silence followed that statement.

"Wow, and you put yourself in danger for that?" Kiba broke the silence, "If it depends in your personality it must suck."

"You're just jealous my kitsune is cuter than Akamaru." Naruto said with a pout.

"What? Summon it right now! No one is cuter than Akamaru!"

Naruto did so, blue mist shaping itself in the form of a fox with two long tails.

Ino squealed as it yawned. Hinata's eyes were sparkling.

"…Ok, I admit it is cute. But it doesn't look powerful."

"It can bash with its tails stronger than I can punch and just yesterday it learned to send a blade of wind that cuts as well as a kunai. But yeah, from what I was told it is still weak."

"And how do you make it stronger?" asked Shikamaru.

"Well, I can train with it like I did to learn the wind blade, but from what I was told the best way to make it stronger is by interacting with people."

"So your 'Persona' gets stronger… the more you talk?" Kiba asked, surprised.

"Seems so." Naruto confirmed.

Kiba then turned to Ino.

"That means that if you learned it you'd be unstoppable!"

"What? You little…"

"It _is_ a Yamanaka technique." Shikamaru confirmed.

Naruto couldn't help it. He started laughing while Ino tried her best to pummel the two.

IIIII

"That was fun! We should do it more times!" Naruto said happily as they walked back to class.

"Yes, that was very enjoyable." Shino agreed.

"Yeah, and next time it is yours and Hinata's turn to talk."

"Me?" replied the shy girl, eyes wide?

"Yeah, I talked a lot to Ino the other day while I was with the ANBU and I've know the other three since I was small, but you two barely said anything the whole time."

"And you spoke about your graduation and your Persona ability with us. I believe it is fair."

"Sure." Hinata answered, still a little surprised.

Naruto turned around, smiling. He was happy.


	3. Teamwork and Failure

Naruto was not happy.

Everyone had already gone out of class with their jonin-sensei, save for his team.

He was annoyed, bored and angry at his teacher. A not very healthy combination… for the other person.

And he was pretty sure his persona was egging him on from inside his head. Was it influencing him? Wasn't it supposed to have the same personality as him? How did that even work?

Well, either way, it translated on him standing on from his desk and pulling a small prank on his new teacher.

So he quickly grabbed a chalkboard eraser and wedged it on top of the door.

"Hey Naruto, what are you doing?" asked Sakura in an annoyed tone… but really, watching whatever it was was better than doing nothing.

"Playing a prank on the new teacher. It's his fault if he is late enough I have time to pull them."

"And it's your fault if we get in trouble." Sakura shot back.

"A jonin wouldn't fall for such an old and stupid trick." Sasuke said from his seat.

"I'm on an unknown timeline here and have limited resources." Naruto replied dismissively. "Besides, if it works it works; if it doesn't, it is a good distraction for the real deal…" Naruto trailed off with a smile and a piece of ninja wire in his hands.

…

"Naruto," Sasuke said, annoyed, "I can see the idea here. I really can. It is stupid, but alright. But I really think that" he pointed to the piece of almost-invisible wire at around 15 cm of height from the ground "and that" he then pointed to the second wire, on top of the door, holding an empty bucket "should be linked."

"Usually, yes." Naruto agreed as he jumped down from the desk he was using to reach so high, "but I have something that I want to try."

And not a second too soon, as just then the jounin-sensei opened the door…

…and was covered in eraser dust.

Kakashi looked at the three of them, the dust almost invisible in his gravity-defying silver hair. The pink-haired girl seemed too worried they'd get in trouble. The brooder over there was giving him a wholly unimpressed look. And the blond…

Was looking above him?

He quickly looked up.

Then a bucket fell on his head.

With everyone but Naruto looking at their new teacher, no one noticed the blue mist dissolving in the air.

"My first impression of you…" the jonin finally said as he lifted the bucket… "I hate you guys. Meet me in the roof in five minutes."

IIIII

"Well, why don't you start by introducing yourselves?" Kakashi told them lazily.

"Introduce ourselves? What should we say?" asked Sakura, a bir confused.

"Things that you like, things that you hate, your dreams, your hobbies. Things like that."

"Hey, why don't you go first, sensei?" Naruto said, still a bit unsure of what he should say.

"Me? My name is Hatake Kakashi. I have no intention of telling you guys what I do or don't like. Dreams for the future…" he trailed off, "well, I have a few hobbies."

"So all he told us was his name." said Sakura lowly for the other two. Naruto nodded.

"Now it is your turn. You first." Kakashi said, looking in Naruto's direction.

"Alright!" Naruto said excited. "I'm Uzumaki Naruto. I like ramen, red bean soup, when others pay me lunch, my friends, making new friends, my Persona, Sakura-chan's forehead—"

"What?" the girl screamed, surprised.

"I think it's cute," he shrugged distractly, "oh, and playing pranks. I dislike assholes, the three minutes it takes to make ramen, vegetables, when people act badly towards my friends and being ignored. My hobbies are comparing flavors of ramen, training, gardening and playing pranks. My dream is to surpass all the Hokages and become one myself. Dattebayo!"

'Well that was… interesting.' Kakashi thought. 'I was expecting… less. Wait a…'

"Did you say 'your Persona'? What's that?"

"Oh, it's something I learned a few days ago. I can make my inner self take a shape."

That said, Naruto summoned the blue fog, and from it the small two-tailed fox kit. The fox then opened it's mouth, in a cute yawn.

"So cute!" Sakura squealed, grabbing it in a hug.

"Hehe, I know I am." Naruto replied proudly.

"Not you stupid! Your pet fox!"

"That's not a pet. It's a Persona. It is me."

Sakura blinked, confused. He was making no sense.

But then—

"I am Naruto, and Naruto is me." The Persona agreed, in a childish voice.

Sakura blinked again. Should she feel embarrassed?

"I am the walrus. Choo choo ka choo."

Everyone looked at Kakashi, confused. He coughed in his hand.

"Uhm, sorry. Alright, next."

"My name is Haruno Sakura. I like… well, the person I like is…" she stopped talking, but her eyes made clear she was talking about Sasuke. The boy just ignored her. "My hobby, well, my dream is…" more glances, likewise ignored.

'She has a one-track mind.' Kakashi thought. "And what do you dislike?"

"I don't like Naruto much… but I like his Persona… but it said it is also Naruto… but it's so cute… I'm… confused?"

"You and me both." Kakashi agreed. "The last one now."

"My name is Uchiha Sasuke. I dislike lots of things, and there are not many things I like. And I don't have a dream, but an ambition. Bringing back my clan, and… killing a certain person."

Only silence followed that statement—

"Is it me?"

For a few seconds.

"…Why would it be you?" Sasuke asked, confused.

"I dunno." Naruto replied.

"Then why did you ask if it was you?"

Naruto just shrugged.

"Aanyway… We are going to have a mission tomorrow. Something the four of us can do…"

The three genin approached the man, curious.

"A survival training."

"Why call this a mission. We already had this training in the academy." Sakura said, annoyed.

"Yeah, we already did this. What's the catch?" asked Naruto.

"The… catch? Hehe… I was going to keep it a surprise, but since you asked…"

He then leaned forward, giving his masked face an eerie shadow.

"Of the 27 people of your class that graduated, probably only nine will actually become genin. The other eighteen will be sent back to the academy.  
In other words, this survival training will actually be a difficult test with 66% chance of failure."

Naruto couldn't help it. The kitsune evaporated in a burst of blue mist.

IIIII

Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke left the building, a bit shaken by the news, even if Sasuke refused to let it show.

"Hey guys! Over here!"

Waiting for them in the tree of the academy grounds was once more teams eight and ten.

Sasuke quietly tried leaving the other way.

"It wouldn't hurt you trying to talk with others from time to time, bastard."

"I don't have time for this, I have to train for a test tomorrow." Sasuke replied bitterly. "If you were smart you'd do the same."

And thus he left.

Naruto quickly turned to Sakura.

"What about you, Sakura-chan?"

She looked at the group, looked at Sasuke´s back, then shrugged. Sasuke had already said he was going to train anyway.

"Ok, it won't hurt... right?"

IIIII

"Man, your sensei is a bastard." Kiba said, matter-of-factly.

"You said yours did the same thing, Kiba." Sakura tried defending her new teacher, even if he wasn't yet.

"But she wasn't a bitch about it."

"Yes," agreed Hinata in her quiet voice, "Kurenai-sensei was very considerate."

"Ours didn't do much, but didn't act like he would have fun with our suffering if we failed either," agreed Ino.

"Doesn't matter, all we can do is prepare for the test." Said Shikamaru, pensative. "I think Naruto is the only one here without a ninja parent, did any of yours give any signal that there was this test?"

"My mom laughed and told me to have fun when I left." Kiba said. "I should have known there was something bad coming…"

No one said anything else.

"Guess that means we can't ask for help from them." Ino concluded, sadly.

"It is the most logical conclusion." Shino agreed.

"So, any ideas of what the test could be?" asked Naruto. "Our sensei said that it was going to be some special survival training."

"Really? Ours said it was just to see how well we worked in a mock mission," Chouji said.

"Fieldwork evaluation." Shino agreed, and Hinata nodded.

"Why would ours be different then?" wondered Sakura.

"Probably because your team would need another type of test."

"What do you mean Shikamaru?" asked Naruto.

"Well, as much as we want to believe the teams are balanced, our team is a perfect replica of our parents' team, considered one of the best teams in the last generation. While Kiba, Shino and Hinata make one of the best possible tracking teams in our class.  
We only need to make sure we work as well as expected together and there is little doubt we would pass, and as such an specialized team is rare I doubt team eight would have been made on a whim, so probably all they need is to work well together.  
Yours though, has no specific field it fits. Our teams have specific skills to be tested and so our test is probably planned around it, yours doesn't."

He then took a potato chip that Chouji was offering before continuing.

"But there is a pattern."

"Your teams still need to be checked if they can work together. " Sakura said, coming to the same conclusion Shikamaru did.

"I doubt they would just throw you away for not having a niche yet, so you probably will be held to the same standards."

"Which means the test for everyone is probably about…"

IIIII

The next day, five in the morning. As the teacher said, the three members of team seven had gone to the appointed training ground, without breakfast.

The teacher wasn't there.

"Perfect," said Naruto before giving a yawn, to Sasuke's confusion.

"Sasuke-kun, we don't want Kakashi-sensei to find out, but we think we figured out the meaning of the test while talking to the others yesterday," Sakura explained.

Sasuke raised an eyebrow, but didn't say anything.

"Shikamaru and me got to the conclusion that the real meaning behind all the tests is teamwork."

"So from what Shikamaru said he'll probably tell the rules in a way that'll separate us, but the real test will need us to work together." Naruto completed.

"Hn, and what if he is wrong?"

"We'll think about it then. But at least we have some idea of what is waiting for us."

IIIII

And so, they waited.

And waited.

Waited for six hours total.

"Good morning, everyone!" said a smiling Kakashi.

"YOU'RE LATE!" replied Naruto and Sakura. Sasuke held himself back.

Barely.

"Sorry, sorry. A black cat crossed my path and I had to take the long way around to get here."

"It has been six hours!" Naruto said.

"As I said, the long way."

"SIX! HOURS!"

"Oh shut up Naruto!" interrupted Sakura. "The longer you complain the longer this will take."

Naruto pouted, but obeyed. She had a point.

And as Sakura said, Kakashi quickly put an alarm clock on top of a log and turned it on.

"This alarm will ring at noon. Your mission is to steal these bells from me." He said, showing two bells.

It was past eleven. They had less than an hour.

"And whoever doesn't get a bell, doesn't get lunch. I will tie you to a log and eat right in front of you." He completed, pointing to three high logs some distance away.

This explained everything. The early hour, the wait, the reason not to eat breakfast. It was to make them hungry, irritable and impulsive.

"But sensei, there are only two bells!" noticed Sakura.

"Well, since there are only two at least one of you will be tied to the log." Kakashi explained with a smile. "This person will fail since they couldn't complete the mission, and be sent back to the academy. It could be just one, or all three, but someone will."

He then turned serious, and continued explaining.

"You can use anything you have. You won't be able to get them if you don't come with the intent to kill."

"But that's dangerous, sensei!" Sakura complained, worried.

Naruto was going to say something, but something held him back. Just like something had made him tell Sakura all those things earlier.

He didn't like that.

He knew it was his Persona's fault, but had no idea how or why.

'What is the big idea?' he asked in his head, not really expecting an answer.

Yet an answer he did get.

_Time is running._

'Oh shit, I forgot!'

"We will begin when I say 'go'…" Kakashi said, ignoring Sakura. "…Go."

As he said that, the three jumped to different parts of the woods surrounding the training ground.

…

For a while.

For as soon as Kakashi turned around, he grabbed an arm in orange jacket going for the bells.

"…Shouldn't you be hiding?" Kakashi asked.

"That's what you'd expect, so that's the perfect time to attack!" Naruto replied proudly.

Kakashi had to admit in his head. That made a bit of sense. Completely twisted, but a sense.

IIIII

"That idiot." Sasuke said to himself, resigned.

"Oi! I take offense to that! It was a good plan! If he hadn't noticed I would already have the bells!"

"But he did notice. And so…" Sasuke replied… until he noticed who he was talking to.

Who was still fighting Kakashi right in front of him.

"Shadow clones. Clones that can touch things without disappearing. Cool, uh?"

Sasuke had to admit to himself that it was, if not cool, useful. Wouldn't say it aloud though.

"Where's Sakura?"

"Here," said a second Naruto followed by the girl.

He quickly dispelled into smoke.

"So, plans?" Naruto asked. "If it was just me I'd use clones to overwhelm him with hit and run attacks, but maybe you guys have a better one."

"What about the bells?" asked Sasuke.

"What about them? Even I can see they are to separate us like Shikamaru said."

"I won't risk it. I cannot afford to be held back."

Naruto opened his mouth to retort, but Sakura was faster.

"Let's deal with this later, we have to get them first."

And that's when they heard a Naruto screaming in pain.

IIIII

"Uh, a Shadow Clone… not as stupid as I thought." Said Kakashi to himself. "Now, where could those three be…

IIIII

"I didn't like that scream…" said Naruto

"Can you make more clones?" Sakura asked, nervous.

Without answering, Naruto made the handseals and a burst of smoke appeared, and the next instant around fifteen Narutos were going for Kakashi.

Sasuke quickly grabbed the other two and quickly pulled them away from where the clones came from.

"Alright, I'll give it a chance. What's the plan?" Sasuke asked. At least Naruto proved himself good for something already, even if just as distraction.

Sakura saw that too, and saw that she had to do something useful to get the respect of her crush.  
So she made a plan on the spot.

"Uhm, remember what Naruto said about overwhelming him with hit and run attacks? We could try this… He does that with his clones, I try hitting him with weapons from a distance and since you have the best taijutsu in our class you go try to fight him yourself… Our attacks may give him many openings for you to get the bells…"

Sasuke closed his eyes, thinking about it.

"I agree. Naruto, can you tell the clones somehow?"

"I… don't think I need to. I mean, it's not much different from what they are already doing. If I make more clones they'll know the plan too, but it's not like it'll change much."

"Good point. Get ready Sakura."

"Yes."

IIIII

Kakashi was surprised. He expected Naruto to just attack without thinking from what he heard about him. Yet here he was, surrounding him and pouncing one at a time and escapng before he could hit back. Well, Kakashi could hit him back if he really tried, but it was the principle of the thing.

Then Sasuke entered in the middle of them and engaged him in taijutsu. Usually he would claim the kid was good but not as much as was said, but the bunch of Narutos around him still attacking from time to time were making it reasonably difficult to defent against the Uchiha properly.

And then the kunais and shurikens began.

It was obvious to Kakashi what was happening: they somehow knew what the goal of the exercise was. But the questions were how and what was he going to do about it.

Sasuke suddenly gave a flying kick, that Kakashi was able to defend. But before he could fall back down he gave a punch—

"GARU!"

Kakashi suddenly jumped back, instinctively. He felt no chakra, but his experience warned him of an attack.

He looked to the place he felt the attack coming from, and all he saw was a frustrated Naruto and the remains of the blue mist of when he summoned that fox the previous day.

The blue mist…

He moved his hand to the bells and was not as surprised at feeling the line a little frayed as he thought he should be.

'So, the little fox can attack too…'

But, before he could think more about it, he had to dodge because _there was a big fireball coming his way!_

The fire was so intense all the Narutos not behind Sasuke were forced to close their eyes, meaning no one was able to see where Kakashi was when the fire was gone.

"Sakura!" Sasuke said, looking around for the jounin.

"Underground!" came the pink-haired girl's voice.

Immediately hands sprung from the ground, and would have pulled Sasuke sown if a Naruto clone hadn't switched with him at the last second.

Kakashi promptly jumped from the ground.

"Pretty good. I have to admit, I'm surprised you guys were this good together.

And then the bell rang.

"Alright, that's enough kids." He said, and stood up from his attack position. "The show's over. You lost."

IIIII

Sasuke was… frustrated. He couldn't blame the others, they fulfilled their parts to perfection… save for that scream of Naruto, but he was the distraction anyway. If only he had taken advantage of the openings earlier…

Sakura was sad. She was so sure of their theory… And it's not like she could have been any more useful either, she was the worst in taijutsu of the three and had no jutsu besides the basic three…

Naruto was frustrated in himself. Sakura's plan was perfect. Sasuke fought just as well. If he hadn't tried that Garu… or at least, if he could do it silently. He was sure his scream had alerted the jonin of his attack and was the reason it had failed.

Kakashi just looked at them, and gave them a smile.

"Calm down. It's not like I _really _expected you guys to win."

He had to hold himself from taking a step back from the three gazes that turned on him.

"I noticed that despite my mission only letting two of the three pass, you came at me in a full group. That is commendable; it is actually what you should have done to pass this test. You know, you are not the first team to have this test, but you are the first to pass it…"

The relief in their expressions was visible.

"But you should not have noticed it so quickly. You should have spent some time bickering and fighting for it before you noticed that I was too strong for your current level for you to fight by yourselves. So, how did you figure it out? Who let you guys know what you should do?"

"No one old us!" yelled Naruto. "We and the others figured it out by ourselves!"

"The others?" Kakashi raised his visible eyebrow.

"Teams eight and ten, sensei." Sakura explained.

Kakashi took some time to absorb this. Well, this was unexpected.

"I see… Well, the test is over. Fair or not, you passed, and are now my team." Kakashi said, seriously.

Naruto punched the air, yelling. Sakura was a bit more subdued, resisting the urge to squeal a bit of happiness. Even Sasuke let himself smirk and relax a bit.

"Follow me. First lesson begins now." The new team teacher called, and started walking. The three soon followed.

He stopped besides a rock filled with names.

"From now on you are teammates. I do not care what you think of each other. You will have to learn to fight together from now on as you did then. From now on you will be taking care of each other's lives. This is not a responsibility to be taken lightly."

He pointed to the stone.

"In this memorial are the names of the greatest heroes of the village: those who gave their lives to fulfill their mission. My best friend and old teammate has his name engraved here.  
But there is something more important. More important than fulfilling the mission, than following the shinobi rules."

Naruto got the gist of what he was talking about already.

"Your teammates?"

"Yes." Kakashi confirmed. "In this world, those that don't follow the rules are trash. However, those that abandon their comrades are _lower_ than trash."

Silence followed his words for a while.

"Team seven will start doing missions tomorrow. You are dismissed."

With that said, Sasuke and Sakura left, the girl trying to convince the black-haired boy to go out with her to celebrate.

Naruto didn't notice them going. He was more focused on his teacher.

The man was deeply focused on the memorial stone, and was exhaling a melancholy air. Naruto could tell: he blamed himself for the death of the friend he mentioned.

After a few seconds observing the man, he finally left. For some reason, he was in no mood to celebrate.

IIIII

He was wandering a bit through the training grounds, deep in though. About Kakashi. About what he would do if one of his friends died and he was to blame. About—

But not deep enough not to notice the sobs.

Approaching the source of the sound, he saw a big tree, and sitting down under it, crying her eyes out, was Ami, a classmate of him with purple hair and brown eyes.

She had also been a bit of a bully, always making fun of people enough some girls ended up crying (Sakura included when she was young), and was always surrounded by a group of friends.

But there were no friends with her now.

There wasn't anyone.

Call him weak-hearted, but Naruto couldn't just let this like that. So he set beside her.

For all her faults, Ami was a trained kunoichi. So she quickly noticed someone sitting beside her, even if she had not noticed them approaching.

Her head quickly wiped to the side and she came face to face with the deadlast of her class.

"What do you want?" she asked defensively, red eyes narrowed and cheeks still red not diminishing much her fierce expression.

Naruto didn't answer for a while. What _did_ he want? He had no idea, he just…

"I just thought you needed someone."

"Ha!" Ami replied, agressivelly. "As if I'd like _your_ company out of everyone."

Naruto bit back his retort. Something told him "no need to be a bitch" was not the right thing to say right now.

Instead he just averted his gaze, looking at the trees.

They stood like that for a while, the girl glaring at Naruto and Naruto looking at anywhere but her, and just as Naruto was getting ready to stand up and leave her alone…

"So, did you fail too?" she said in a resigned voice, looking forward.

"Not this time." Naruto said back, in an even tone.

"*sigh* Defeated by the deadlast… Bet Sasuke-kun did most of the work."

"It was more of a group effort, actually."

"Whatever. Why are you here? Wanna shove your victory over someone's face?" she asked aggressively, but her heart clearly wasn't in it. She sounded more resigned than anything.

"Not everyone is like you, Ami." Naruto replied, and then cringed at his words, even if they were true.

She turned away from him in a huff.

"I'm going home. I don't need to hear this kind of thing from you." She said as she started standing up again.

"Look, I'm sorry,"

"Save it."

Naruto sighed.

"I know how it feels."

The girl said nothing, but stopped.

"This feeling of having failed. I know how it feels. It makes you want to cry, to give up. But you have to keep going, or else you'll never be able to do anything anymore for fear of failing again."

"Don't compare yourself to me. I've always been among the best. You are a failure that just got lucky."

"Then I have more experience with failing than you, don't I?" he replied.

"You don't have anyone. You don't know the feeling of disappointing someone."

Naruto had no reply to that.

The girl just shivered, still turned around.

"S-sorry… I just—"

"No, it was true. That is a consequence of failure I never had to deal with."

The two were quiet for a while. Then the girl rested her back to the tree and stopped holding back.

"I've always been the strong girl in class. That strength made other girls follow me, and it got to my head… but they weren't my friends, not really. I've always had to make an effort to keep myself ahead, else one of them would try to take my place. That place… it was all I always had. I had no idea what I would do if I lost it.  
Then this happened."

"_What_ happened?" asked Naruto, curious.

"I was put on a team with that boy with the big medal and one of the bootlickers. Then the jonin told us to make a mock mission of stealing a scroll she was protecting.  
My first act was to try to cow bling-boy into obeying me, but that stupid bitch just went ahead and tried stealing it by herself. I think she was trying to show herself as better than me, but all of her plan was to just go there and punch the jonin out of the way.  
I pulled her back, but she attacked me. Next thing I remember were me and her fighting while bling-boy just watched.  
The teacher… took exception."

Naruto tried digesting it.

"So, it wasn't your fault?"

"Do you think my parents will accept that?" she asked bitterly. "No, they will just see me as a failure.  
And I'm being sent back to the academy! With my authority undermined, no one will respect me. And even worse since I already failed it once!"

"You said yourself they feared you more than respected." Naruto stopped her rant.

"Not helping."

"It shouldn't." Naruto replied. "Outside the academy people won't care for how big is your authority there."

"Says the deadlast who never had any."

"Suit yourself." Naruto said, resigned. "But if you'd rather have a friend than a stooge, you can always look for me."

He stood up to leave himself, and almost did before he heard a low "I'd like that…"

Then the girl ran away and left Naruto alone and confused.

IIIII

Naruto went home right after that, since he was hungry and had no idea how long the others would take on their tests.

Unrelated, at about the same time a Hatake Kakashi just noticed the two takeaway lunches and one takeaway ramen bowl (Naruto had been the only one that told him his favorite food) he had planned to give his new students, either as a second test or as a reward, were still there with him…

As soon as he entered his home, Naruto noticed a letter that had been put under his door.

_"Hey Naruto,_

_Since we found out all our three teams passed, we are going to celebrate with a group dinner at Yakiniku Q!_

_It will be at six, don't be late!"_

With a smile, he put the letter on top of his table, right beside his main potted plant… which had brought in a visitor.

"Oh, hello!" he said smiling to the blue butterfly.

Unfortunatelly that made the butterfly fly away…

Right on the tip of the doorknob of a blue door Naruto was _pretty_ sure hadn't been in his apartment before.

Slapping himself to make sure he wasn't seeing things, Naruto slowly approached the door and opened it carefully…

Coming face to face to a blue-themed bar he had been to before once.

"Oh, hello," said Igor with a smile. "Welcome back."

IIIII

It was a cave.

The man lying down on the symbol of his god, praying, entered a trance once more.


	4. In the Cards

"Igor, there is something wrong with me." Naruto said worriedly as soon as he sat on the chair.

"Hmm? How so?"

"I-I'm not acting like myself. Sometimes, I find myself doing or not doing things I usually wouldn't do."

"For example?" Igor asked, unworried.

"Saying hurtful things to people I wouldn't usually. Holding back on saying things I would. Fighting… defensively. And I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have talked to anyone the way I did with Ami."

"Wouldn't you?" Igor replied. "I think you would, if given the chance."

Naruto was going to argue, but held back. He didn't notice any influence from his Persona, unlike from the other three cases he mentioned.

"Alright, I'll give you that one. But what about the things I said to Sakura-chan, or stopping me from making fun of Kakashi-sensei, or fighting like that?"

"Did you say anything you weren't thinking?"

Naruto thought back to it, then shook his head.

"Do you disagree that holding back was the best action?"

Naruto slowly shook his head again.

"You see, your Persona is you. An externalized you, an you that sees things from a third person point of view. It can use this unique view to offer you advice on what you would think is best if it was you watching someone else.  
Advice, nothing more."

Naruto nodded. It made sense.

"Well, if I answered your main doubts… You were expected here for… other reasons." Igor said, steppling his fingers. "Do you remember how to increase the power of your Personas, I take it?"

"By using it more and interacting with others." Naruto nodded.

"Yes. Usually, enough meaningful interactions would allow your persona to evolve… However, you seem to be able to utilize a most wondrous ability… Tell me my dear guest, what do you know of the Arcana?"

"Absolutelly nothing!" Naruto said happily.

Igor let escape a quick laugh.

"Ever heard of Tarot?"

"Yeah, it's those cards used to read the future, isn't it?"

"It has been used as such," replied Igor, amused. "Each card has been given an esoteric meaning in the tarot deck… including personalities."

"And by personalities you mean Personas?" asked Naruto.

"Yes. Many people's personalities, and thus their possible Personas, can be classified through the main 22 cards of the Major Arcanas of the tarot deck.  
For example, you."

"Me?" Naruto asked surprised, pointing to himself.

"Yes. Freedom. Spontaneity. Creativity. A little bit of chaos and madness. Inexperience, meaning space to grow. Exuberant and not afraid to show how you enjoy life. Full of faith and charisma. Listens to your heart and takes risks. And most important, you are open, doing your best to understand others even if they would not do the same to you. My dear guest, there is only one Arcana I believe fits you."

Naruto got closer, paying total attention.

This Arcana represents the beginning, and infinite potential. It is versatile, being able to utilize almost any abilities while other Arcanas usually specialize.

He got to the edge of the seat…

"Arcana number zero: The Fool!"

He fell from the seat!

"Fool?!"

"Do not be mistaken due to it's literal meaning. Fools are spirits in search of experience, and thus are open to the world itself. As does the number zero, as it can become anything."

"I guess, when you put it like that…" Naruto agreed, sitting back in his chair. "But, that's about my Persona, right? You started talking about these Arcana to tell me about something else?"

"Yes, my dear guest." Igor agreed. "You see, your… openness also allows you to utilize this ability to its full potential.  
The ability to switch Personas." Igor finished, grandiosely.

Naruto just stood there, confused.

"Why would I do that? I mean, don't I have to train my Personas to get better at them? Doesn't that mean focusing on one would be better?"

A bit frustrated by such a lackluster response, Igor explained:

"Different Personas have different abilities, as well as different strengths and weaknesses. By unlocking your Persona you gain the benefits of such abilities, but also the disadvantages of their weaknesses. For example, your current Persona, Kitsune, has resistance to Wind attacks, but is vulnerable to Fire."

"I see…" said Naruto, sadly. It had seemed too good to be true.

"By changing Personas, you can use the most useful at the time."

"That does sound useful, but what does it do to me? Will I start acting like Sasuke if I use a Persona like his or something?"

"Oh no, you misunderstand… The new Personas are still a part of you, but their view of the word is slightly influenced by what you understand of people of that Arcana. By changing Personas, you are just changing your viewpoint. They may direct you to behave a little more like someone of their Arcana, but that's it."

"I see…" that was a relief, not having to change how he acted to be able to use another Persona… or worse, be _forced_ to change how he acted. "And how do I get a new Persona-tebayo?" he asked, excited.

"The same way you do to get them stronger: interacting with people with personalities of that Arcana."

"Cool! I can't wait to get some new ones and check what they can do!"

"Oh, you already got some." Igor guaranteed with his usual grin. "Look here."

He moved his hand along the table, and where it passed a card appeared. Most had a number but were empty, but six showed their image.

The Fool, the Empress, the Chariot, the Hermit, the Tower and the Sun.

"The problem is, most of these are too strong for you to use yet. You would probably collapse before being able to summon all but the Chariot's initial one.  
I advise you to look for more people to relate with, to increase your choices."

He then waved his hand, and the twenty cards levitated to in front of Naruto in a neat stack.

"Uh. I wonder who I got a card from."

He picked the first card, the Fool, and looked at it…

And soon saw a picture of himself with his team.

"Your journey for growth and knowledge is the first step on the way to unlocking your full potential."

He picked the other cards. The blank ones held no picture, but the ones filled did. Ino as the Empress, Kiba as the Chariot, Shikamaru as the Hermit… Ami? Apparently their talk was enough for her to be the Tower. And Chouji was the Sun.

He guessed he still didn't know Shino and Hinata enough for them to get a card. Or Sakura-chan.

He really should work at least on Sakura-chan. At least trying to find out why she broke her friendship with Ino, to be able to try to bring it back. It was clear even to him Ino suffered a bit with that.

"Any other questions?" Igor asked, smile still on his face.

"I guess none right now… Oh wait, how do I change Personas after all?"

"Oh, you just need to concentrate. You may find it easier if you imagine a card of the Arcana you wish to use."

"Thank you Igor."

"It was no problem, my dear guest. My mission is to assist. Well then, for now, farewell."

The lights began shining brightly around Naruto, and the next think he knew he was back at his apartment in front of that blue door, feeling like having just woken up from a nap.

In his pocket was a pack of tarot cards.

Curious, he imagined a copy of the chariot card in his mind breaking down into mist and becoming a Persona.

He felt himself becoming a bid more confident, a bit more harsh. But he also felt his own self under it.

He tried summoning his Persona like he did with Kitsune, and was a bit shocked. What appeared was a blue-green blob, with angry eyes and a mouth. "Slime", he thought, and somehow knew that it was resistant to physical attacks but weak to fire like Kitsune.

It was also a bit harder to manifest than the small fox, but having the Persona in his mind was only a bit heavy at first. Curious, he tried imagining Ino's card, Empress.

He quickly grabbed a chair nearby to try to keep himself upright. He couldn't even focus on the Persona to figure out the name under the headache.

He quickly let go of the card in his mind, and the pain was gone, just a dull ache for now.

By his side, Kitsune manifested itself. He barely noticed the strain of it anymore but for when using a technique with it, and having the small fox by his side helped him calm down.

So, that was it. Using a Persona was a chore on his mind, he was strong enough for Kitsune and Slime but any other would be too hard for him for now. Like using a weapon, he could only use what he was strong enough to, any more would be too much a strain. And that Persona had been too much to just hold right now, much less attack with.

He pulled himself to bed and let himself go, too mentally exhausted to even prepare an instant ramen. He would rather be hungry than awake right now. He had to force himself to adjust his alarm clock to about half an hour before six, and went to sleep still clutching it.

IIIII

Yakiniku Q was no Ichiraku, but again they were different: while Ichiraku got you your ramen ready on the counter by a friendly and smiling waitress, Yakiniku Q had tables with griddles so the client could roast the barbecue at their taste, but you barely saw the waiters.

In other words, Ichiraku was great for a personal meal with a friend, but for a gathering Yakiniku Q was better.

Not that Naruto would ever admit it. But he wasn't the one who chose it anyway.

Teams eight, ten and Sakura were already there when Naruto arrived. Sasuke wasn't though.

"Hey, where's the bastard?" he asked, sitting on an empty chair.

"He didn't arrive yet," Sakura answered, sounding a bit worried.

"He probably isn't coming," replied Kiba. Sakura and Ino looked like they were going to disagree, but the fact was he wasn't there yet and he was usually punctual as far as they knew.

"Hey, are you alright Naruto?" asked Chouji, worried. Naruto was looking a bit pale and holding his head from time to time.

"Not really. Didn't have breakfast and woke up early because of the test. And then when I got home I tried a new thing I learned about my Persona that was too much for me so I ended up skipping lunch."

"What does this Persona thing _do_, afer all?" Sakura asked, curious. "I mean, it said it was you, so it is some kind of cloning technique like you did at the exam combined with transformation like that perv one?"

"Nah, it's a Yamanaka technique," Ino answered for him, "Persona is a manifestation of a person's personality, which for those able to summon lets them use special abilities."

"Wait, so that fox is Naruto's _mind_? But it is so cute!"

"I know! So unfair…"

"Oi!" Naruto interrupted. "That hurts girls. Right here," he said, pointing to his chest.

They all laughed, even Hinata a bit (probably Shino too, they couldn't tell), and their meat was delivered.

"It is not so surprising, however." Shino said as the food shizzled.

"What do you mean, Shino-san?" asked Hinata, in her shy way.

"Kitsunes are tricksters considered very good at shapeshifting, particularly on female forms, and many illusions and enchantments, including illusory fire. Although, they are also supposed to be wise…"

"Ouch, come on man, even you?"

Another round of laughter ensued.

"But seriously, the only abilities my Persona has until now are a strong bash of its tails and cutting winds."

"Maybe you just need to make it stronger." Shikamaru replied. "Or maybe you'd be good at genjutsu if you ever learn it."

"Our new teacher is said to be good at those," Kiba said. "Maybe she could help check?"

"That'd be nice." Naruto said, getting a piece of meat to see if it seemed cooked enough. It did, so he took a bite. "I'll ask Kakashi-sensei tomorrow to see if there isn't any problem. Could you guys ask her for me if he agrees?"

"Sure," Kiba shrugged.

"So, how were your tests?" asked Chouji.

"We were told to locate and capture our sensei before the time limit. All three of us could locate her, but we had to work together to capture her even though she was clearly holding back." Shino answered.

"Same here but for the locate part. We had Chouji fight him physically until he was in position for me to capture him in my shadow jutsu so he couldn't avoid Ino's body control one," Shikamaru said in turn.

Naruto nodded, mentally noting the information about those jutsu. Could always be useful.

Noticing it was their turned, he turned to look at Sakura, who was looking at him.

Sighing, he started:

"Ok, let's just say ours was different. For starters, it was supposed to begin at 5 in the morning, but the bastard of a teacher…"

IIIII

After a while, it was time to go. Ino, Shikamaru and Chouji lived near each other, so they left together. Kiba went with his teammates too because he was a group person like that.

Which left Naruto alone with Sakura. Something he usually would be quite happy to be.

But not today. Not with the look of sadness and longing on her face as she watched Ino going home with the other two.

"Hey Sakura-chan," he said quietly as they walked, which surprised the girl; she couldn't remember he ever being this quiet. Well, when they were at the test, but it was a different kind of quiet.

"What is it Naruto?" she asked suspicious, "If you are going to ask me on another date—"

"No, no. Well, not this time. I just wanted to ask…"

He swallowed. He was probably overstepping his bounds asking this, but he couldn't help it.

"Why aren't you and Ino friends anymore?"

Sakura stopped, surprised by the question. Naruto stopped at her side.

"I… Ino and me both like Sasuke-kun, so we couldn't be friends anymore."

"But all girls in class seem to like him too, but they are still friends," he pointed out.

"I… you just wouldn't understand."

"Do you?"

The girl looked down, biting her lip.

"I… I…"

"Sakura-chan, can't you two be friends again?"

"Why do you care?"

"Because I like you, and Ino is my friend. I want you to be happy."

The girl just stood there, looking at anything but him.

"It is too late."

"Sakura-chan, I'm sure that—"

"I had to choose between love and friendship and I chose love. You never had either, so you wouldn't know how I feel."

Hearing that from her hurt, but not more than the hurt look she could see in her eyes.

She quickly went away, leaving the boy behind. But not before hearing his words:

"And why did you have to choose?"

IIIII

Sakura entered her room in a bad mood and quickly covered her head with her pillow to muffle her sobs. She was angry. Angry at Naruto for asking that. Angry at herself for purposefully trying to hurt him like that. Angry at Ino and Sasuke for the situation she was in.

Not for the first time, she wished she still had a friend to talk to. But she had no one.

IIIII

Naruto looked sadly at the now filled card, Sakura's card, the Lovers symbol mocking him for what he now knew it meant for her.

With a sigh, he went home.

At least he could use this one's Persona already.

IIIII

The man rose, his purple eyes opening full of happiness.

He had been blessed by his god once more.

As he raised his arms, his eyes shone a sick yellow, and blue mist took form in front of him.


	5. Starting a Training Routine

**For starters, I'd like to apologize for taking so long to send the chapter. I won't make excuses, besides my computer problems and a small case of writer's block I've been playing a bit of PersonaQ to see if there was any new Persona knowledge I could get from it.  
As a matter of fact, there was.**

**But anyway, I was hoping for sending you guys a longer chapter that would end with Team 7 going right to their first C-rank mission next chapter, but it was taking too long and I thought you guys would be getting a bit impatient.  
So, I just gave Naruto his final Arcana for a while and decided to close at a good point and finish the chapter for now.**

**Hope you guys enjoy it as much as you seemed to enjoy the other chapters, and sorry for annoying you guys with this Author Note.**

* * *

Naruto woke up early, so he would have time to buy this. It would be useful, he thought.

Everyone looked at him weirdly as he walked through the street reading that book, but he didn't care. It's not like it was the first time he got weird stares, probably wouldn't be the last either.

Good thing he did have the book to spend some time, though. His jonin-sensei was late, Sakura was ignoring him and Sasuke was… being Sasuke.

Half an hour later, Sakura gave up and let her curiosity win.

"Naruto, why are you reading a book about Tarot?"

"What? Oh, sorry," he said, closing the book to pay better attention to her. "It's to better understand my Personas."

"Your summons?"

Naruto blinked and turned to the voice. He hadn't even noticed Sasuke was paying attention.

He thought a bit. He guessed "summon" was a good way to explain it.

"Yeah, they are divided between the Major Arcanas, so I'm hoping that by understanding those better I can work better with them. Or at least the three I can already use."

Sakura was a bit confused, from what she understood from Ino's explanation each person would have just one Persona, right?

"And what can they do?" Sasuke asked before she could say anything, sounding genuinely curious.

"Well, depends. Kitsune is a bit of a distance fighter right now, Slime is more for the frontlines and Pixie can heal."

Uh. Sasuke was surprised. That was a versatile summon squad. Smile went to the frontlines with Kitsune for the support while Pixie kept them alive.

"And you can summon all three at once?"

"Uh? Oh, no. Personas can only be summoned one at a time as far as I know."

Oh. Well that was a bit disappointing. Still made Naruto more useful than he thought at first though.

Well, yes, they weren't the strongest summons, and it's not like they are Naruto himself to be _his_ strength (as far as he knew), but that still made him a bit versatile.

While Sasuke was concentrated on thinking about the strategic uses of his teammates' abilities, Sakura approached Naruto.

"Look Naruto… I'm sorry for what I said yesterday. It was out of line."

"Oh, don't worry," he replied with a smile. "I'm sorry too, I shouldn't have pried."

"No, I can understand. You're Ino's friend t—now."

Naruto noticed the slip of the tongue, but chose not to comment.

"Sakura-chan," he said seriously, closing his book, "I know you don't like me much, but I really admire you. I wouldn't ask you out if I didn't. But if there is one thing yesterday showed me is that I barely know you.  
I'd like to change that."

Sakura blinked at the hand being shoved in front of her.

"I know you won't be my girlfriend yet, but do you want to be my friend for now?"

Sakura could just blink again at this. Yes, she would like to get a friend, but…

"Look, if there is one thing you don't have to worry about is me and Sasuke. He is only interested in my body and I don't like him that way."

Sasuke couldn't resist a snort at that. Sakura quickly turned to him, surprised.

"What? It's not like there's anything more interesting to do right now than listen."

With a giggle, Sakura shook Naruto's hand.

"The offer's open for you too, bastard."

"Hn," was his only answer.

"It feels so good to see my little genin getting along…" came a happy voice.

Turning to its source, it was no less than the person they were waiting for.

"YOU'RE LATE!" yelled Sakura.

"My milk was bad and they ran out on the store I usually buy… Naruto, why are you reading about tarot?"

"My Personas are based on the Major Arcana," he answered, putting the book inside his jacket.

"I see," Kakashi answered. He had no idea what relation tarot would have with a Yamanaka jutsu, but it's not like he as a Yamanaka anyway. If Naruto said so…

"Well, I am glad to see your dedication to bettering yourself. Just try not to become overdependent on just one technique."

"Yes, sensei!"

"Good. Now come with me, my cute little students, we have missions to take."

His lateness forgotten for now, the three genin followed him towards the Hokage's tower.

IIIII

Kakashi hid his mirth at their faces behind his book. The Hokage and Iruka didn't make such an effort.

"So… _those_ are the missions we can take as our first one?"

Three nods answered Naruto's question.

The blond blinked.

Then he looked at his teammates.

"We waited almost an hour to take _these_ missions?"

"Yes Naruto. We are as annoyed as you," Sakura answered.

"Worry not, Naruto-kun. Despite your lateness, I saved the best ones for you."

Naruto looked at the old man's smirking face. Then at the missions available.

Only being held aloft by Kakashi prevented him from trying to tear up all the Hokage's face.

IIIII

"Are you calmer now?" Kakashi asked the bound and gagged Naruto.

He had been forced to do this when a fox that turned into mist started tearing the office apart. With wind blades.

The Hokage took it in stride though.

He idly noted how he could barely detect chakra from the blades. Probably the reason he had not noticed the attack during the test until he was almost hit. It was barely a kunai strike, but it was at a distance and hard to detect, could be deadly if used right.

He also took notice that Naruto seemed tired after using five of the wind blades, barely managing a sixth if he was right. Probably a time to rest would be a good idea?

"I must admit, we didn't expect you to be _that_ annoyed by it."

"…"

"I mean, Sasuke and Sakura were just as annoyed, but didn't try to make a scene."

Said two were just watching the exchange.

"…"

"Silent treatment eh?"

"Kakashi-sensei, he is still gagged."

"Oh. Right."

IIIII

"Well, it has been a productive day," said Kakashi as they arrived back to their training ground. The three genin did not share his good cheer. "I'm thinking tomorrow we train a bit before taking missions, since you guys are good enough to take three a day. You are dismissed."

"Wait!" Naruto said desperate, before the older male could body-flicker away.

"Hum? Did you want something Naruto?"

"Yeah! Well, two things actually."

Kakashi was curious. Judging by the other two standing there with them, so were they, but Naruto didn't seem to care.

"Well first, Kiba mentioned his sensei being good at genjutsu, and I was wondering if I could take a few lessons with her if she wouldn't mind…"

'Ah, Yuhi Kurenai,' thought Kakashi, 'I doubt he'd have any chance with his chakra control, but she knows more about genjutsu than me.'  
"Well, as long as it doesn't interfere with _our_ lessons and she agrees, I see no problem. Check with her about the others too, Sakura has some good chakra control and Sasuke's family was said to be good at it. What else?"

"Well… Ino said that I have to increase my morning exercises from time to time, but not too much… Could you help me with this?"

"Hm… I'm not the best person for physical training of others, but I know someone who can help you. Tomorrow morning, around seven, go to training ground six and tell the jonin there I sent you and why.  
Anything else? Anyone?"

Since no one said anything after about five seconds, Kakashi shunshined away.

"Well, that was a waste of time."

"Naruto!" Sakura yelled at him, "We were doing an important work for the village!"

"We were doing _chores_, Sakura-chan. Some civilians do that for extra money. We are doing it as our _day job_!"

"I'm surprised I'm saying it, but I agree with the deadlast." Sasuke said as he left for the day.

"Hey bastard, don't forget! Training ground six, at seven!"

As Sasuke left, Naruto turned to a training post and summoned something that looked like a small fairy in a blue leotard, who promptly threw her hands forwards and a small lightining appeared arced towards the post, ending with a bang and a mark.

"What was that?" Sakura asked, curious.

"Oh hey Sakura-chan, I'm just trining with my Personas, thought you'd leave with Sasuke since we have nothing to do with the others today."

"Oh, I was going, but then I saw the fairy—"

"Pixie, actually," he corrected automatically.

"I thought each person only had one Persona?"

"Yeah, that's what I thought. But it seemed from what Igor said that I got a special ability that lets me change them because… I'm good at making friends or something? I didn't really get much why…"

"Uhm… okay," Sakura said, a bit disappointed by his lack of knowledge. "I'll be going then. Bye Naruto."

"Bye Sakura-chan."

Naruto continued training a bit, but it was more automatic now. _Why_ did he get that ability?

And why did his mind go to that blue butterfly when he thought about it?

IIIII

"Do you have some space?" Naruto asked tiredly.

Shikamaru didn't move, but Chouji went a bit to the side so he could sit between them.

Naruto just threw himself to the ground, then turned around to see the sky.

"You were right, Shikamaru," he said after a minute, "this _is_ relaxing."

A murmur of agreement was the only answer he got.

"What are you three doing?" sounded the sad voice of Ino after a while.

Shikamaru sighed. "Watching the clouds."

"We are supposed to be training!"

"_You_ are the one that said we should train. Chouji and me are perfectly fine."

"We are supposed to be a team! Not only that, we have _family combinations_ to train!  
And you?" she said turning to Naruto, "Why are you with them in this?"

"Actually, I just finished training summoning my Persona until my head felt like it would explode, and decided to ask the guys where Kiba was so we could ask his sensei about that genjutsu training. But, well, this is relaxing and just what I needed."

"_You_ get tired?" Chouji asked, surprised.

"Makes sense." Replied Shikamaru. Personas are a Yamanaka jutsu, so they are probably a very charged Yin chakra, probably the closer possible to pure spiritual energy. Naruto is physically resilient, but mentally is another story."

"Actually," Ino said, "the jutsu is just to unlock them, Personas themselves are supposedly from before even the Sage of Six Paths if the family archives are to be believed."

Naruto blinked.

"Since when did you know that?"

"Well, since someone had to come and unlock it and then become my friend, I did my best to learn about it as much as I could." Ino said, a bit embarrassed of being put on the spot.

"Thank you Ino." Naruto said sincerely.

"Nah," she waved it off, "it's just what friends are supposed to do.  
Well, the files did say that summoning Personas was mentally taxing and too much could make you feel it physically, so I guess you earned your rest. Now, you two…"

Naruto tunned out her rant as he fell asleep in the grass.

IIIII

"Hey, Naruto! Wake up!"

Naruto opened his eyes slowly and looked around. Besides team ten, there was team eight and a pretty woman in white and red that was probably their sensei.

"Oh, hey guys."

"Hey Naruto!" Kiba answered. "Heard you weren't feeling well?"

"Just trained a bit too much. That rest was just what I needed." Naruto answered, stretching his arms.

"So this is the friend of yours who you wanted me to give lessons in genjutsu?" the woman asked neutrally.

Hearing that, Naruto jumped up.

"Hey there! I'm Uzumaki Naruto, future Hokage!"

"Yuhi Kurenai," she replied with a small smile. "I assume we can begin right now?"

"Uhm," he said, uncomfortabe, "Kakashi sensei that if you agreed I had to bring my teammates to have a chance too, so…"

"So I guess you'll get a bit of an advantage." She interrupted with a blink.

Naruto's smile widened.

IIIII

"I'm going to be frank, you are not said to have the best chakra control. And chakra control is supposedly very important in genjutsu."

"Supposedly?" Naruto asked, confused.

"The reason is that to use genjutsu you need to control with your chakra the one on target's brain. By affecting that chakra, you can affect their senses. Now, if you fail to do so, it will simply not work, not cause any damage to either of you besides the waste of chakra.  
The thing is, people thing control is all that is needed to be able to convert our chakra with your target's. It helps, since you have to put the chakra there in the first place, but it is in fact a separate talent.  
So, I am going to teach you the basics, and you train with it and with your chakra control until you are able to use them properly, then you look for me for more lessons. What do you think?"

Naruto nodded. One more thing to train with, but at least she told him straight up what his problem with it would be and how to fix it.

"Very well. We will begin with detection and canceling so you do not fall prey to enemy ones, then I'll give you a basic one to train with."

Naruto nodded.

"Very well. Now, first I will explain in words so you know what to do in practice. When you are under a genjutsu, usually…"

IIIII

"Wow, I never thought I'd see Naruto that quiet for a lecture…" said Ino from the sidelines.

"He is a practical person," Shkamaru replied "He can see how genjutsu would be useful, so he wants to learn it. He can't see how lots of things in class would be useful, so he wants to skip them."

"But he skips so much. Many of the things he skipped _are_ useful."

"I said he is a practical person, I never said he is a smart practical person."

He didn't bother dodging Ino's hit to his head.

IIIII

In the end, it wasn't that much. Naruto… wasn't that good detecting genjutsu, and much worse dispelling them, but according to Kurenai most were at his age, he just had to train until he could feel it instinctively.

No surprise in his using either. He tried on both Kurenai herself and then on a shadow clone, who supposedly would be easier to affect with one due to his chakra being originally the same, but he didn't have the control to send his chakra to its head yet.

But, he had the basics. All he could do now was train and improve his chakra control like he was told.

And to make things worse, _trying_ to make a genjutsu was as mentally tiring for him as using a Persona to attack, so he had just gone through two exhausting trainings one after the other with just a small rest.

So, it was a once more mentally tired Naruto that went home and threw himself on the bed.

IIIII

"Guh…"

Naruto pushed himself to stand up that early, and went to prepare his breakfast. He had given himself half an hour before he had to go there, but didn't cout on still being that tired…

Oh well, it was going to be physical training. He was always good with those, so it would also help him relax his mind.

And so it was that Naruto arrived at Training Ground Six and met his teammates…

…and someone with the biggest eyebrows he had ever seen!

"Yosh! I am Rock Lee, Konoha's beautiful Blue Beast! It is a pleasure to meet you!"

"Uh… oh, hi! I'm Uzumaki Naruto, this is Haruno Sakura and giggles is Uchiha Sasuke."

He quickly found himself on the ground from a punch on top of the head by Sakura.

Lee decided to ignore this.

"You are the most beautiful girl I've ever seen! Please go out with me! I will protect you for the rest of my life!"

"No!" Sakura replied without even thinking and tried to hide herself behind Sasuke.

The other boy slumped instantly.

Standing up, Naruto couldn't help asking…

"If you are the _blue_ beast, why do you wear green?"

"Don't bother," replied a girl's voice coming from the woods of the training ground. "He and Gai-sensei are weird like that…"

What came from the woods were a girl with her hair in two buns, a long-haired boy that was probably related to Hinata with those eyes…

"Your words wound me, Tenten-chan!"

…and what Naruto would be pretty sure was a Rock Lee clone if it wasn't older.  
Did that mean Rock Lee was the clone?

"Excuse me, are you the jonin Kakashi-sensei asked us to talk with?" Sakura asked politely.

"Ah, so you must be the youthful new students of my eternal rival!" Not-Lee-Clone said. "I am Maito Gai, Konoha's Sublime Blue Beast! What do you need me for, my youthful friends?"

That said, he gave a smile that made his teeth sparkle.

"Uhm…" Naruto… had no words anymore.

"Kakashi said you could aid us in our physical training." Sasuke said bluntly

"Of course!" Gai answered energetically. "Not wanting to brag but as a jonin specialized in taijutsu I am considered one of the foremost experts in physical education in our village.

Sasuke gave a satisfied nod at that.

Sakura gave a shy nod at that.

Naruto…

"Wait, so is Rock Lee your clone? Or son or something?"

"Nope!" Gai answered. "In fact, we are not related at all but in our desires to spread the greatness of taijutsu and the Flames of Youth!"

"And why did you two say 'blue'? You guys wear green!"

Gai only gave a mysterious smile. Well, he tried making it mysterious. He looked more like constipated.

"Are you feeling okay?" Naruto asked worried.

"I am feeling great, Naruto-kun, thank you for asking! Well, I need to have a clear understanding of your true abilities if I am to push them to their limits and beyond, so why don't you go have a spar with Tenten-chan?"

"Sure, Gai-sensei."

"Oh, oh! Let me Gai-sensei!"

"I am sorry Lee, but you and Neji-kun are good enough to fight them, but not good enough to hold back to their level to properly evaluate them yet. Also, as a weapon specialist Tenten-chan needs more experience in unarmed combat to be well-rounded."

"I understand, Gai-sensei! I am sorry, Tenten-chan."

"Nah, don't worry about it."

Naruto was a bit nervous, to be honest. He was being observed on his taijutsu skills by someone considered a specialist, and against someone trained by him.  
Should he use Slime? No, that would give him an unfair advantage. This was supposed to be just to see what he could do. No need to go all out.  
Besides, he just knew he was going to be humiliated enough without having gone all out in his head to shame him even more.

IIIII

Tenten was brutal. For not a taijutsu specialist, she was quick, she hit hard, she either evaded or parried most of his attacks and had the experience to change from defense to offense in less than a second. Pure technique.

Naruto was a brawler. No finesse, no control. Pure instinct. He hit hard and aimed kind of to the right places, but he was predictable, telegraphing his moves. He also had no concept of "defense", tanking most hits, even in critical places. But he had endurance, and could make surprising movement from time to time.

One couldn't hit, the other shrugged off most hits. And as much as Naruto wasn't good, evading him was tiring Tenten.

"That's enough Tenten-chan, Naruto-kun!" said Gai when they reached the two minute mark. "Take a breather Tenten-chan, we still have to evaluate the others."

"So, how did I do?" asked Naruto, still full of energy.

"You need training in defending and in stopping telegraphing, and probably getting a fighting style would help you." Gai said seriously, deflating Naruto. "But it is much better than expected from a recent academy graduate, congratulations!" Gai's smile and thumbs-up lifted Naruto's spirits a little.

Next it was Sakura's turn. She was… okay-ish. She had the basic forms of the academy style memorized, but she was a bit slow, not having put it to instinct yet to be able to use it for defense properly, and did not have much energy either. But boy, when she hit, she hit _hard_…

"You need to build up your speed and endurance. Also a new fighting style you would be more suited at. You are good at the basic one taught at the academy, but 'good' won't cut it on the battlefield."

Then it was Sasuke's turn. He had technique. He had speed. He had fierceness. He adapted the academy fighting style to his instead of the opposite. But as good as he was, Tenten was more experienced, and had more endurance even after two other battles.

"You are good. But reckless and impatient, going for offense and sacrificing defense. For Tenten-chan it was a valid tactic, but if you find an opponent faster than you you will leave too many openings. We will work on your defenses and your endurance mostly."

"But Gai-sensei, sir," Sakura interrupted, "Kakashi-sensei only sent us here to get us advice on our usual morning exercises…"

"Which you will get right now! But trust me, he will not complain if I use my specialization to help his youthful students reach their full potential!"

"Makes sense…" Naruto said, crossing his arms with a smile. "So, so! What about our morning exercises?"

"Well, I have an idea of what exercises you need more, but not in your current endurance. So, let us start a youthful run around the village so I can evaluate it. Come on you too, my youthful students."

"Yes Gai-sensei!" said Lee enthusiastically.

"Hmf," replied Neji, unenthusiastic.

"Ung…" groaned Tenten, as she stood from her well-deserved rest.

Sakura was feeling tired enough from her battle with the weapon specialist, but seeing the serious look of Sasuke and the carefree smile of Naruto, she knew she had to push forward.

IIIII

"I will have your new exercise schedule ready for tomorrow. Now everyone, you have a half an hour to rest before it is time for our training to begin. Why don't you spend it getting along?" Gai said with a smile.

Leaving the kids to their devices, Gai approached a tree a bit further from them and sat on the ground as if jut observing.

"You got a nice batch here, my youthful rival!" he said apparently to no one.

"I can only talk about their taijutsu, but let me tell you what I see. Sakura-chan is a bit behind, but has lots of potential in damage-dealing with enough training. Sasuke-kun should probably invest in speed training, he is very nimble. Naruto-kun…"

The jonin took a deep breath.

"Naruto-kun has a mountain of potential, to be frank. He has loads of endurance, and an amazing recovery time. His fighting style is a little sloppy, well actually very, and looks poor, but that is because he adapted the academy style to his own. He is chaotic and would be unpredictable with a polished fighting style that suits him… but the way that it is it overly-telegraphs. I'd suggest you teach him one that suits him better as soon as possible, or at least help him polish his.  
But what really worries me is that after a while he stopped caring about avoiding being hit and just tried to hit harder. That is a good strategy in spars, but if he gets this complacent in actual combat it will just get him killed.

That is all for now. See you later I guess?"

No words were said, but a couple leaves fell from the tree's far side.

IIIII

"Don't worry, you guys went pretty well." Tenten tried to comfrt the members of team seven. "And even if you hadn't, you are here to get better, right? So now we know what to work on."

"I still lost." Sasuke said sourly.

"Pretty sure it was a tie."

"It wasn't a victory."

Naruto mouthed "big fish small pound" behind him to her. Then ducked to evade a punch from Sakura, who was rolling her eyes.

Tenten smirked, and decided to tease him a bit.

"Yes, not like you've just left the academy while I have had over half a year by a taijutsu specialist."

Sasuke looked at her with anger for a bit, then closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

"You are right. I am sorry. You have much more experience and training than me, so it is just fair you are better for now."

Tenten just smiled.

"But just a warning, in the next six months I will be better in taijutsu than you."

"Oh, it wouldn't be surprising," Tenten replied with a smile, "I'm a weapon specialist. It's the other two on my team you should be looking out for."

Naruto couldn't help laughing at Sasuke's surprised expression.

"Haha, I like you, Tenten. Wanna be my friend?"

Sasuke and Sakura got such a whiplash from the change in mood that Sakura actually fell down in surprise.

"Sure!" the girl answered without a hint of a pause.

Meanwhile, Sakura found a hand in front of her, and looking up came face to face with a blushing Rock Lee.

"Let's go on a date! I will protect you until I die!"

"Not again Lee…" Tenten said under her breath, palming her face.

"What? No!" Sakura screamed, surprised, and crawled backwards to hide herself behind the closer teammate's legs… which just happened to be Naruto's.

"Dude, too strong," Naruto said as a reprehension. "There, there," he patted Sakura's head.

And was promptly punched as the girl stood up and this time used Sasuke as a shield.

"Oh, I can already tell you guys will be fun to have as friends." Tenten said with a smile at the scene.

"Hmf," Neji let out, looking to the side as if disgusted with the scene.

"Hey Tenten, who's the chatterbox? Is he mute or something?"

"I am Hyuga Neji," he answered pompously.

"Oh, I see. Not mute, just an asshole."

"Say what you like. It is clear to me you are just a thug with no future beyond mediocrity."

"Ouch, that hurt me man," Naruto replied. "Right here," he added, thumping his chest.

"Save your jokes for those who care for them."

"Where's the fun in that?" Naruto answered with a wide smile.

Neji just kept walking away.

"Guys, I have a mission now." Naruto said to his team, still observing Neji.

"We know Naruto," replied Sakura. "Becoming Hokage."

"…Guys, I have a second mission now."

"And that is?" asked Sasuke, not really curious but knowing Naruto would annoy them until someone did it.

"I'm going to prank that guy until he stops being such an ass."

"I approve of this youthful mission!" Lee said, enthusiastic.

"Yup, really fun." Tenten added to her previous thought.

IIIII

"Ok, I got to ask… why do you look so much like Gai-sensei? Are you related?"

"No, Naruto-kun. Gai-sensei is my idol! He saved me from my own weakness and lack of confidence and gave me the boost that I needed to get where I am! That's why I strive to prove that his trust was not misgiven!"

"What do you mean?"

Lee looked up, a faraway look in his eyes.

"When I graduated the academy… I was almost worthless. Bad at everything, barely passing, the only thing I had that was halfway competent was my taijutsu.  
Gai-sensei promised me that, if I worked hard, that halfway competency could turn into my greatest strength. That if I gave it my all in training…"

He looked down sharply at his own teammate behind his back.

"I would be able to defeat even someone considered a genius."

Neji crossed his arms at those words, as if saying "I'd like to see you try and fail."

Naruto looked at the two.

"You know what, you're a good person too Lee. Want to be my friend too?"

"Of course, Naruto-kun! You can never have enough friends!"

IIIII

Naruto dragged behind a bit as his team went back to their own training ground. It felt a bit like cheating on his new friendships now, to be frank, getting powers from befriending people…

Would the ones not already in the know feel betrayed if they found out? He could only hope it would be mitigated by the fact he actually wished to be friends and the Personas being just a bonus…

With a deep sigh, he drew his cards. It didn't take hm long to find one of his two new friends. Funny, she already had a card, but Hinata and Shino didn't. Was she just more open, or were the other two more reserved?

"Well, Tenten was quick, but again she is Magician. It means action, initiative, self-confidence… Yup, it fits Tenten from what I saw."

He concentrated on the Arcana, and summoned…

"Agathion!"

What appeared was a slightly ornate vase, with some sort of blue imp hiding inside.

"Agi!" Naruto proclaimed, and a ball of fire was shot from the imp's mouth.

"Ok, ok… Let's see what Lee is now…"

Fortune… makes sense, for all the meanings of the cards in term of personality it is for people who fight _against_ fate and seize their own destiny in spite of it. Since Lee was focused on proving himself despite his lack of ability on the less esoteric ninja arts…

"Let's see, you get me… Empusa!"

Some sort of blue sphinx with equine legs and tail appeared, and shot a beam from her mouth. The tree it hit had a bit of it covered by ice.

Naruto was surprised by it, so, just calling the Persona was enough to use the technique? That was faster.  
Seemed like training with them was already showing results.

At the same time, this was the third Persona he had with a fire weakness of his five, only Pixie, who had no weakness and a resistance to electricity, and Agathion, which absorbed it, did not have such weakness.

He just knew he would have problems with fire in the future…

Sasuke had no idea why Naruto was giving him the evil eye this time, but he responded in kind.

IIIII

"He is late again!" Sakura complained. "But for once, I don't care. My legs _still_ feel like jelly."

Sasuke didn't reply. He wouldn't say out loud that he was almost the same.

"Naruto, why are you doing this?"

Naruto was sitting down and holding a leaf to his forehead with chakra.  
It was a chakra control exercise they learned a long time ago at the academy.

"I was told yesterday that my chakra control is really bad. I'm trying to make it better while we wait. You guys could try too? It's not like you'll lose anything."

Sasuke said nothing. After all, what could he say? Wordlessly, he sat down with a leaf of his own. An excuse to rest his legs was just a bonus.

Seeing both Sasuke and Naruto doing it, Sakura just shrugged in a "why not" gesture and joined them.

And that was the scene Kakashi saw when he arrived.

Blink.

Blink.

"Well, I won't say this is an unwanted development, but… Stand up everyone, the teacher has arrived!"

"Yay…" Naruto said sarcastically while standing up, eyes crossed in an attempt not to let the leaf fall as he did so.

"You're late." Sakura said as she stood up, now better rested and thus without any effort to keep the leaf in place.

Sasuke just stood up, without saying anything. He wasn't as bad as Naruto, but was far from having as easy a time as Sakura.

"Well, as much as it is a good thing to train chakra control while resting your body, and even better because Naruto really does need it, it is time for our team training to start officially," Kakashi said, ignoring the accusations with ease. "So, why don't we have a short mission?"

IIIII

"Of course, my dear High Priest." Said the man with a deep bow. "I would be honored to be gifted with a better way to spread the name of the Lord."

"Excellent. The Lord is happy that you are a worthy servant." The younger man answers, purple eyes glinting in true happiness. "Do your best so that this happiness is kept."

"There is no doubt about it. After all, the Lord represents all I believe about humanity itself…"

"Ah, yes," answers the priest, "then when your shift is over, follow our Lord's emissary until the site prepared for the ritual. Do not worry, it is not far from here."

As the words are said, a black butterfly leaves the priest's staff and rests on top of a painting on the wall. The slightly older man's eyes follow said flying until it's landing, before looking back at the smiling face of the priest.

"I will be waiting there," the priest finishes, and donning his straw hat leaves the place through the front door.


	6. Two Weeks

**Hey everyone, sorry for taking so long to release this chapter.**

**I will be honest, I took so long because... I didn't like it. But I believe it was needed. Some character development happens here with the side-characters and there is some attempt from me at humor and a try at an action scene, but the chapter felt like a lot of padding for me who was writting instead of the flowing connection between the previous chapter and the next it was going to be in my head.  
**

**But most of the time was spent trying to put some of the ending scenes on paper. You may notice they may feel a bit different, it is because they were written in the end a couple weeks after most of the chapter.**

**I am really sorry it took so long to finish this chapter. Next one I hope to release much sooner... and this time, there _will_ be some action!**

IIIII

Training after the mission was… a surprise.

"Paintball," Sasuke said in a monotone.

"Paintball?" Sakura asked, confused.

"PAINTBALL!" Naruto screamed in happiness.

"It is not paintball! It is dodging practice!" Kakashi tried to correct. "Inter teams. Using paint-filled balls instead of more dangerous weapons."

…

"Oh my god, it _is_ paintball."

Three nods confirmed his hindsight.

"Well, too late. I already made plans with the other teams."

"Why should we waste time with childish games?" Sasuke complained.

"This is _training_, Sasuke. With this, you learn to avoid being hit, while also trains to hit moving targets. It is just in a controlled battlefield with non-letal weapons."

Sasuke crossed his arms.

Sakura was confused.

Naruto nodded in understanding.

"Remember what Gai-sensei said Sasuke? We need to learn to defend instead of just attacking, and… it's not like it would trouble Sakura much to be a bit better."

Kakashi wondered how _Naruto_ was the one that understood it best.

"Well, it is too late to do anything about it. It was already agreed with Kurenai and Asuma. Two days from now we will have a… paintball match."

"PAINTBALL!"

Kakashi couldn't help, he just had to slap his face.

At least from the sound he wasn't the only one.

"So," he said then, ignoring the hand-shaped mark on Sasuke's face, "let's train a bit."

IIIII

It was a very… colorful team 7 that met team 8 later.

Not that the other team was any less colored.

"Hey Kiba, Shino, Hinata!" Naruto greeted happily. His reply was a polite nod from Shino and a shy one from Hinata. Sakura replied with a "hello" of her own.

"…dodging training?" Kiba asked with a smile.

Sasuke ignored him.

"He's still a bit sore about it being through paintball."

"Well, hope he is still able to concentrate on my lessons," said Kurenai, appearing out of a tree.

The action got a surprised silence from the two new people in the clearing.

"Naruto, you know what to do," she said, and Naruto did a clone and with a salute went to continue the previous day's training.

"Now, about you two, let's begin with the basics of genjutsu."

IIIII

"Well, I got to say, you both get a good start. Sakura, you got a pretty good chakra control, but you need some better adaptability in your chakra. Sasuke… you're better than expected from a starter. Need some better control though, but with some training you can get very good."

"What about Naruto, Kurenai-sensei?" asked Sakura, confused by his omission.  
Come to think of it, he hadn't had an evaluation like them, being training on the side.

"Oh, we had some talk already yesterday while we arranged for your training. He doesn't have enough control right now, so he needs to increase it before he can do it. We've been focusing more on detecting and dispelling with him."

The two genin nodded. So that was why he had been trying to train his control.

"Now, I can't train you three every day, so how about every Tuesday and Thursday after your own team training?"

"I see no problem," Sasuke replied.

"Thank you for helping us," Sakura continued, with a bow.

"There is no problem. I accepted the mission of training genins already, and training in genjutsu is my personal preference, even if none of my personal trainees have a desire to study it."

With a short bow, the three genin left.

IIIII

The next day, early morning, team 7 met once more with team Gai for physical training… no matter how much their bodies hurt.

"My youthful friends, here I have your new work-out schedule. It may seem a bit heavy at first, but it will soon become easy.  
That's when we increase it a bit. The flames of challenge must always be under you."

Sakura raised her hand, a bit uncomfortable.

"Excuse me, but won't that get in the way of our missions?"

"Oh, do not worry. This just your warm-up exercises, your youth will let you recover from them quickly once you get used to them."

Two hours later, Sakura was flat on her back trying to regain her breath, Sasuke was barely holding upright together and Naruto…

"So, this is what being physically exhausted feels like…"

Was slightly better than Sakura, but recovered enough to be able to talk.

"Hn," was the only answer Sasuke trusted himself to give.

"Well, it sucks. I usually stop when I feel just a bit tired…"

"Do not worry, Naruto-kun, you will soon feel much better after you get used to training." Lee tried to help.

"Yes, it is as Lee-kun says. It is no good if the training doesn't push you to your limits, and you got high endurance so you needed more of it to reach yours. Thankfully your speed and strength will be easier to train," Gai added his own words.

"…Does that mean I'm weak and slow?"

"By no means! It just means you are not as strong as Sakura-chan and not as fast as Sasuke-kun, but everyone has their strengths and weaknesses, and yours is your endurance and stamina."

"Well… ok, I guess…" Naruto agreed, ignoring the surprised look on Sakura or the way Sasuke was looking at the girl as if it was the first time he saw her.

"Do not worry about being late, your teacher already knew today would be a difficult day for you three here so he probably won't mind you being a little late."

All three team 7 members looked at him confused.

"…he is always late, isn't he?"

Three nods were his answer.

"Kakashi and his hip attitude…"

"How is being late 'hip'?" Naruto asked, confused.

His question was ignored by the man.

"Well, we will be going for our team training now. See you tomorrow, my youthful friends!"

"Goodbye friends!" Lee added.

Tenten just gave them a "bye". Even Neji gave them a sympathetic nod.

They were never more grateful for Kakashi's lateness.

IIIII

Training was the same as previous day: a D-rank mission, dodging training and a second mission to finish the day and then they were free to go.

Well, he was going to train with his Personas a bit, but… He hadn't visited Iruka-sensei since graduation, and the next day he was going to have a group snack with the other teams after paintball—I mean, inter-team dodging training. So, why not visit the academy right now?

So, here he was, in front of the academy, only to find out…

"Hey, Ami! How have you been?"

The tired purple-haired girl dropped herself on a nearby bench, then waved to him to come over.

"I'll be honest, didn't really expect to see you again after our talk," she said, surprised.

"I thought it would take longer too," Naruto agreed. "I thought you'd have some more time before the extra classes Kakashi-sensei mentioned started."

"No, you don't get it, I didn't think you'd talk to me, period. I thought you were just being nice then."

"Oh," Naruto couldn't help feeling a bit disappointed she thought that of him.

"Don't take me wrong," she quickly tried to correct herself, "I really appreciate our talk, made me see things another way. But… it was just that. One talk. I had no idea if you were serious when you offered to be my friend."

"Well, I was. Still am."

"Thanks," she replied with a small smile. "With the way I used to act, I kind of burned a bunch of bridges… I'm trying to get back on top now, but…"

"Do you _have_ to be 'on top'?"

"If I want to ever make chunin," she answered. "Since you passed you only need your sensei's permission to try the exam, but since we failed we have to train for at least one year, show ourselves as leader material _and_ be among the best of the class to have a _chance_ of being appointed to the exam."

"And being 'on top' would make you seem leadership material?"

"Well, I guess… I mean, being the leader of the class would make me a leader, right?"

"I don't know… wasn't the reason you failed the exam because your team didn't work as one? How will it work if everyone that tries for chunin tries to be the leader of the others?"

"Hm…" Ami tried to dismiss his words, but couldn't. "If you are right, then what does the 'leader material' the teacher mentioned means?"

"I don't know… You could always ask them? I mean, teaching is what they are there for…"

Ami just nodded. What else could she say?

"Hey, are you still having classes with Iruka-sensei?"

"No, the repeaters are sent to a special class with more specialized instructors. Those of us that they think would be better in an area are then given extra classes in that. But unlike you, it's not like they can just focus on three of us, so it may take a bit for that to happen."

Naruto nodded back. He never thought how much better being with a sensei of his own was. So, his own sensei would see what were his strong points and weaknesses, or, well, ask some more experienced one in the area to do this for him, but for a whole class he'd have to be lucky and highlight himself in an exercise of something he'd be good or bad at before being trained at that.

...

They talked some more about the differences in their trainings.

"And then, only after three months you are allowed to take missions."

"Three months to be able to do D-ranks?"

"Oh no. D-ranks are for mostly publicity, those are for you who passed, the faces of the genin. We just go right to C-ranks… after three months. You guys can go as soon as two weeks if your sensei thinks you are ready."

"Oh, so you mean we can take one as soon as next week?"

She looked at him, confused. "Your sensei didn't tell you that?"

"No," he replied, shaking his head. "Who told you?"

"The teachers told us all the differences between us to make it clear that even though it would be harder for us we would have the same chances eventually as you guys."

"That's nice," Naruto said happily.

"I guess…"

…

"So, you are training dodging through…"

"Paintball!" Naruto completed happily, ignoring the twitch on her eye.

"…Are you serious?"

"Why does everyone asks that?"

…

But, eventually, it was late, and Ami had to leave. Naruto didn't really have anything to do, but he had no reason to not leave either.

In the end, he completely forgot to make Iruka pay for his dinner… I mean talk with his old sensei.

IIIII

Saturday. The day of the so-awaited paintball match.

Sasuke still thought it was a bit ridiculous, but being hit _every time_ by Kakashi showed him how his evasion was poor.

Sakura was resigned already. At least she wouldn't be the only one forced there.

Naruto was excited.

The other teams had just as varied reactions, judging from the appearance we had the excited Kiba, the distracted Choji, the shy Hinata, the competitive Ino, the indifferent Shino and the annoyed Shikamaru.

"Alright children, here's the deal," Kakashi explained the rules. "First hit on you, you're out. No helping others after being hit, by out I meant you are out of the game, not just out of winning. No jutsu accepted, be ninjutsu or genjutsu, but you can use chakra manipulations to give you an edge if you know any. You are divided in your teams already, so no reason to split you up."

Meanwhile the teacher Naruto only saw once or twice, Asuma-sensei, gave everyone their paint balls, a bag with ten for each one.

"Ready…" said Kurenai, raising her arm. "GO!"

"This is just ridiculous…" said Sasuke, yet he still backtracked to avoid enemy fire.

In the end, or rather less than a few seconds in, the first move was made by Kiba, who used a special chakra manipulation of his family, the Four Legs Technique, to run around what he considered the weakest team…

Only to remember just when he got there that with using his hands to move he had no hands free to throw with.

"Oh no…"

He quickly tried to grab a ball from his bag, but not quickly enough as Sakura turned around and threw a ball of paint right in his face.

Meanwhile, Sasuke quickly ran towards what _he_ had considered the weakest team.

The fact he took the training seriously saved him from taking the six balls of paint team ten alternately threw at him as he zigzagged to avoid being hit.

However, that also exposed their plan, Naruto becoming visible behind him, as he lagged a bit to move the same way Sasuke did.

Team ten was separated to be harder to hit, but under Naruto's advisement they were headed for Shikamaru. Sasuke jumped to have a clearer target and threw his paint ball, while Naruto, his vision unobstructed, threw his own one from the ground.

Choji quickly jumped in front of his friend, taking both balls and allowing Shikamaru to aim and throw at what he considered the bigger threat and also the easier target: the airborne Sasuke.

Naruto answered that by grabbing Sasuke's legs still in the air and pulling him down, taking him out of the way of Shikamaru's throw.

Sasuke answered in kind kicking Naruto and throwing both of them away from each other to avoid Ino's throw, who Naruto hit in kind before hitting the ground.

Unfortunately, Sasuke wasn't as lucky with his own target, Shikamaru contorting in a bridge to avoid being hit. Both then rolled around to try their luck again, and…

Shikamaru was successful in both hitting Sasuke and avoiding being hit.

Avoiding by going right on the path of Naruto's throw, who took a chance with them paying so much attention to each other.

He quickly jumped to the side and rolled, old prankster instincts warning him of being caught in the same trap, right as a paint ball passed through where he used to be. Rolling on the ground, he saw Shino, his shades giving him a fierce appearance, and painted Sakura and Hinata. Hinata's colored side showed she more than likely was caught by surprise, while Sakura's blot in the middle of her chest testified for, if he was right Shino's, accuracy.

He slowly grabbed one ball with each hand from his bag, as he saw Shino doing. This would be duel-style.

Both threw their balls, which hit each other, exploding in a cloud of paint that hid each from the other's vision.

Regardless, they jumped to the side to where their instincts said the other was moving to.

Naruto was hit in the chest.

Shino was hit in the face.

Everyone turned to the teachers for the judges' pronouncement.

IIIII

"I don't want to go to your group meeting," Sasuke complained.

"Oh, come on. We won free meals there as a team, it is only fair for us to eat them as a team."

"It was really nice of the teachers to expand the prize to both out team and team eight after announcing it was a draw, Sasuke-kun. It is only polite to eat together with the other winning team."

"And with the only losing team?"

"Meh, they'll pay for themselves," Naruto waved it aside.

IIIII

"Well, I don't know about you guys, but I had fun," Naruto said as their meat cooked.

"I don't know about fun," said Sasuke back, "but it was a much better training than I expected."

"Yes, as much as it was a pain I have to admit it was a good simulation of the chaos and rapid-pacing of a real battle," agreed Shikamaru.

"Well, not really. In a real battle I'd have been able to use my claws to attack instead of fumbling for a paint ball," Kiba said. "I'm surprised Hinata was so distracted to be surprised like that though.

The girl in question hid herself a bit in her jacket, trying to avoid being seen.

"Well, guess we'll be prepared for next week," said the boy, trying to draw the attention away from his teammate who was clearly uncomfortable.

"Do you think we will have it next week? I mean, with being able to take missions the week after that…"

Everyone was silent after those words.

"Uhm, Naruto…" Sakura said in a surprised tone, "we are already taking missions."

"Uh? Oh, I meant C-ranks."

"What do you mean, C-ranks?" Sasuke asked, in a neutral tone.

"Oh, a friend I made among the ones that didn't pass the jonin-senseis' test told me that according to the teachers we who passed can take C-ranks after two weeks if the sensei thinks we are ready."

The table once more went silent.

"Ok, then next week we do our best to convince our sensei to let us go as soon as possible."

Sakura, Sasuke, Naruto, Hinata and Shino nodded. Shikamaru just said it was too troublesome to argue. Choji…

Was too occupied turning the meat to answer, actually.

IIIII

Sunday was a free day.

That meant Naruto had nothing to do…

He decided to walk for a bit.

He ignored the people, since most of them either ignored him or gave him cold stares.

Until he met someone he knew.

"Hey Tenten, what are you two doing?" he said as a greeting.

"Oh, hey Naruto," she replied. "Well, was just walking around when I saw Lee doing… this."

"This" was walking on his hands with a rock on top of his feet.

"He said he is going to go around the whole village like this."

"Wow, he must be pretty strong…"

"No. Well, he is, but not enough for this yet."

"Uhm… shouldn't we stop him before he gets hurt then?"

"Nah, not possible. When he and Guy-sensei get like this, nothing changes their minds. Neither does Neji, come to think about it, but again he doesn't show much emotion anyway…"

"Sorry to ask, but is that guy as much of a prick to your team as he has been to mine?"

"Oh yes. Don't get me wrong, he has his reasons, but if I hear any more of his fatalist bulshit today I think I am going to explode."

"Fatalist? Him?"

"Yeah, he thinks that the destiny is predetermined by 'Fate' and that no matter what we do it will make no difference. He is always trying to put Lee down, saying he is fated to failure. He doesn't do it to me, but Lee is a good person, even if a little weird."

"Wait, why does he think Lee is fated to failure?"

"Did you forget Lee told you he is terrible with anything but Taijutsu? Well, that put him as the last of our class. Neji refuses to believe anyone can improve, as if our future worth was determined by our initial abilities. I think it is stupid but, well, he clings to it like a religion."

"I see… sounds like a tough guy to stand."

"Yes. The worst part is that he is really good making his points, which would make him a great diplomat if he didn't use it to belittle everyone he meets because he is so great, because he was the rookie of the year of our class and has those special eyes of his."

"Special eyes?"

"Yeah, his family's Byakugan can let him see around and through things when active, he uses it to see the tenketsu and block people's chakra with his techniques."

"Tenketsu?"

"The main points of chakra circulation. If it is blocked you can't mold chakra in the part it controls for a while."

"Hm…" Naruto had to give, it was a very good tool in a ninja battle. If he could block the chakra from whoever he was fighting, then they would be much easier to fight against. Shikamaru even said his Persona used a bit some sort of Yin chakra, but maybe it is because he is not used to them yet… so would be able to stop even then?

"Wait, did you say he can see _through_ things?"

"Yeah… and in 360 degrees, so they don't even need to be looking at you when it is active. But the veins in their head bulge when they use it, so it is pretty obvious."

"That must be confusing."

"Must be. He is always training it during the morning."

"Hmm…"

"Yeah, and between powerhouses Lee and Gai and the prodigy Neji is weak little me."

"Oh come on, I fought you remember? I know you're not weak."

"Sorry Naruto, but you're no powerhouse yourself… But you got potential. Unlike me. I'm just the weak, normal Tenten."

"You say 'normal' like it's a bad thing."

"It is not exactly a bad thing, I wouldn't mind the others acting a little more normal sometimes, but…"

Naruto had no idea what to do… so he did the only thing he could think of.

"Hey Tenten, it's lunchtime! Come on, let me introduce you to my favorite eating place—"

And so he spent his day with Tenten, trying to know her better and cheer her up.

IIIII

Neji was confused. He was sure that he saw a fox with his normal eyes, but when he used his Byakugan all he could see was something like a mist… and when he deactivated and went to check, the fox was gone, with no hole on the ground for it to hide.

What was going on?

Meanwhile, Naruto was holding his smirk. Operation gaslight, begin.

IIIII

"So, being a leader and being the boss are not the same thing."

"Yeah, yeah, don't shove it in my face."

"I'm not!" Naruto defended himself. "You said yourself that knowing the difference is important if I want to become chunin."

"Yes, well, the teacher said that they can't give me any tips, that we need to learn it by ourselves… but that by asking, I was on the first steps to finding out."

"That's great!"

"Great for you, maybe. I have no idea what else I can do."

"Hey, we have time. At least we have a tip, even if it's not a great one."

"You can say that again…" Ami said angrily, eating the last bite of her sandwich and throwing the paper bag in the trash.

IIIII

'Ok, what the, are foxes invisible to the Byakugan or wha—it disappeared again!'

Neji ignored the smirking blond. He was more confused than anything.

IIIII

"I think I'm in one now?"

"Why do you think so? What is the change?"

"I… don't know… that tree over there is a bit greener?"

"No Naruto, you aren't in one now. In fact, I had just undone one where that tree's leaves were purple."

"Oh…"

"But! You noticed a change. That means you are getting better at noticing them."

"Thank you, Kurenai-sensei."

"Now, let us train that instinct a bit more by training to dispel them for a bit."

"Yes, sensei!"

IIIII

"Neji, what the hell are you doing?" Tenten asked, this was the third day in a row Neji acted like he was looking for something.

"It… it is nothing."

IIIII

"Everyone seems to think that just because I'm smart that means I have to be better than everyone else." Shikamaru complained.

He apparently had done an IQ test for his jonin-seinsei and as expected he was making a fuss about the result.

"I just want to be treated like a normal person. Live a normal life, marry a normal girl, live in a normal house… But everyone seems to want to push me to be the best. I don't want to be the best."

Naruto couldn't answer, but Shikamaru wasn't expecting an answer. All he wanted was a soundboard.

"And here comes Ino, wanting our team to be better than our parents were…"

"…What is normal, Shikamaru?"

"What do you mean 'what is normal'? It is the standard most frequently occurring."

"Well, the other day I was talking about someone, and they said 'normal' like it was a bad thing… but here you go saying it like it is a good thing. I have a definition of normal, that person had one, you have your own… But isn't normal supposed to be following a standard? So, what is the standard for a ninja villae? What is the _normal_ normal?"

That shut Shikamaru up.

It was a valid question. Normal is subjective to the environment, he couldn't just proclaim something as normal and act as if it was so, if he wanted the actual normal he'd have to research what it was. Which, since it seemed no one did so yet, was not something done normally and would go against his wishes.  
He just couldn't answer the question.

"I guess there is not a 'normal' normal," he said finally. "Guess that's why I want it…"

IIIII

"GOT YOU!"

Everyone looked startled as Neji jumped behind a shrub screaming.

Only for him to go back with his rubbing his eyes.

"I am sorry Gai-sensei, may I take the day off? I'm… not feeling very well."

"You may, Neji-kun. Hope your flames are properly fanned tomorrow."

This time, Naruto's smirk got _someone's_ attention…

IIIII

"Kai!"

"Focus more of your chakra inwards. You want it to go out in a quick but strong burst." Said the blue-skinned teacher… or at least blue-skinned in Naruto's eyes.

According to his shadow clone, he could feel his senses being affected when he tried using genjutsu, but he just wasn't able to do anything with it yet. At least he was having some progress with the 'casting' even if he was having trouble with the dispelling.

"Well, it is good that you know you are affecting him." Kurenai said, with a satisfied smile. "Now you need to train to be able to do something useful with it. And after that, we train to make him not notice the genjutsu. You need a delicate touch of chakra, enough to affect but not enough to be noticed."

Naruto nodded, determined. It was just one step, but it was still a step forward.

IIIII

Neji was ecstatic. He got so close last time, this time he really will catch that fox—

There, a tail! Now, if he was silent enough…

"Yeauch! Sakura-chan, my ear! Let go of my ear!"

Neji turned around quickly, just in time to see the pink-haired girl pulling her blond teammate away from the others. With eyes wide, he turned around, but the fox had already disappeared.

Meanwhile, Sakura was chewing Naruto out.

"Seriously. I know he isn't the nicest guy, but that is no excuse for torturing him like that."

"But Sakura-chan…"

"No buts. Stop doing this right now!"

Naruto couldn't help but pout at that.

Sakura sighed.

"Tell you what, I'll let you do it one more time tomorrow. Then it's over, so you better enjoy it enough. Deal?"

"Okay…"

While they talked, until they left, and maybe a bit more, Neji searched for a fox that had already dispelled.

Because, well, he didn't know it dissipated. Foxes don't usually do that as far as he knew.

IIIII

"What are you doing here Naruto?" Kiba asked, Shino by his side and Hinata… hiding a bit behind him? "Your training with sensei was yesterday!"

"Glad to see I'm appreciated." Naruto answered with clear sarcasm. "You guys usually leave right before my training with her. Thought you'd like to talk a bit from time to time."

"Oh… Thanks man, but we are a bit tired… can't we leave it to tomorrow with everyone together?"

"The problem _is_ that everyone is together. It's not that I don't like it, but it gets hard to talk enough with everyone. I still barely know much more than Hinata and Shino's name. All I know is that Hinata has special eyes, and that's because Tenten told me about Neji, and that Shin is good with thrown weapons." Hm… she is supposed to be able to see chakra with them, was that why she seemed scared?  
Nah, couldn't be. He never saw her with them active and Neji doesn't seem to even notice his presence even with his.

"Oh man, these eyes are useful. Let me tell you, they helped a lot in the mission to catch the cat of the Daimyo's wife,." He said, stepping to the side to put her in the spotlight… and she quickly jumped behind Shino. "We didn't have a smell and Shino hadn't tagged it yet, so we had to rely on one of us seeing it."

"I see! And since she can see all around her she could see it easily!" he said with a smile to the girl, who eeped and hid herself better. Oh well, guess knowing her better was a bust for now. "Wait, what did you mean 'tagged'?"

"My clan works usually with Kikaichu beetles, a genetically engineered kind of beetle that drains chakra from my enemies do feed. By 'tagging' someone, as Kiba calls it, by putting one on them that produces pheromones they can track each other."

"Beetles that drain chakra…" Naruto replied with a shiver. "Remind me not to get one of you angry with me."

Shino didn't answer, but Naruto could feel some amusement coming from him.

"So, how are you guys doing…"

…

It was a good talk, but not what Naruto wanted… he wanted to know Hinata and Shino more, but ended up practically only talking to Kiba. Oh well, Shino was a quiet guy so that was ok. Hinata seemed to be afraid of talking to him though…

IIIII

It was going to be the last time Neji would be tricked by this particular prank (thanks to Sakura), so better go out with a bang.

As Neji trained his Byakugan while training his body so he could keep it active even while tired, he looked apprehensive around, as if looking for something. Naruto waited a bit, until he had to rest himself a bit, so he wouldn't see the fox appearing out of nowhere.

Which was easier said than done. It has been ten minutes and Neji was still with the eyes active.

So he had to be creative.

He had been training to summon a Persona quicker. This time, he forced himself to do it the opposite, summoning it as slowly as he could.

Neji kept looking around, not noticing the chakra slowly building up at a point behind Naruto and taking form, too concentrated trying to expand his reach to find an already existing source.

On his side, it was the first time Naruto had _really_ paid attention to the whole process of summoning a persona, making a blue mist, already existing in the world… _somehow_, become denser and take a shape using the Persona in his head as a blueprint, then putting a part of the Persona inside the shape but still keeping it connected to his mind just like he was still somehow connected to his shadow clones… What was the blue mist made of though?  
Also, usually Neji was able to see the Persona with his special eyes, was it because of whatever made up the mist or was it because Naruto was still learning how to use it? From what he was told, his Persona was made using Yin chakra, but it was supposed to be made using just spiritual energy, and as close to it as Yin chakra was it still had a bit of physical…  
Was the blue mist solidified (sort of) spiritual energy? If so, how was it made this far from himself? How far from himself would he be able to create a Persona with enough training?

A gasp brought Naruto back from his thoughts, and looking at the direction it was clear Neji had finally noticed the fox persona hiding behind him. Resisting letting out a smirk, he made Kitsune walk nonchalantly from behind him and passing by the boy's side.

Paying attention so no one noticed, Gai-sensei correcting Sakura at the moment and the others occupied with their own training, Neji slowly and stealthily began walking after the small fox.

And blinked, thinking he was seeing things, as he finally noticed the fox had _two_ tails instead of a bushy one.

Then the fox disappeared behind a bush.

Neji blinked again.

So, he wasn't dealing with a normal fox, but with a kitsune from the tales…

Was the fact he was the only one who noticed it a sign from fate?

He didn't notice, but his face suddenly grew an excited smile.

Naruto just got confused.

Oh well, at least he was able to trick the guy for a bit.

IIIII

"Well, I believe you must be imagining what we will be doing today, since I know at least one of you had so much fun with your evasion training," Kakashi said from behind his book.

He was answered with a nod from Naruto and a roll of eyes from the other two.

"Unfortunately it is not to be. We decided to address the issues we saw with you guys during last week today." That said, he crated two clones, Kage Bunshin from Naruto recognizing the sign, and each Kakashi took one team member for separate training.

Naruto's Kakashi sat down on the railing of small the bridge near the training ground.

"I don't have much to tell you, to say the truth," Kakashi admitted. "You did very well all around, with that plan of attack with you and Sasuke, protecting each other. Your only faults were when you just pulled Sasuke, losing your attention on the battlefield and letting yourself open to Ino, and in the end, where instead of just firing where you expected Shino to end you went after him, not trusting your instincts. You hit him perfectly, but you were also hit.  
As such, I've decided to train your surroundings awareness. I will create water clones who will try to hit you with water balloons. Yor objective is to avoid them while wearing this."

In Kakashi's hand was a blindfold.

IIIII

Another Saturday, another meeting of the rookie genin.

Naruto was drenched, but by the end of the day he had been avoiding a bit more of the attacks. It wasn't much though, it was still the first time they trained in this, it was mostly his natural instincts for now.

Sakura's training was the same, but hers was for general agility. Even though she was able to take advantage of her opponent's opening, she was not able to avoid an attack.

Sasuke's was… also the same. But his explanation was also different. Sasuke apparently put too much trust in his nimbleness and speed to be able to attack enemies from up close. Which put him in trouble against an opponent that may not be as fast but had already expected his attacks and moved with anticipation, negating his advantages. The training would put him on the spot, meaning he would learn to deal with disadvantageous situations.

The reasoning was sound, but Naruto couldn't help but feel like reusing the same training felt a bit cheap of him.

According to the other teams, their teachers had more originality.

Also for some reason their teachers decided to make them do them together, unlike Kakashi who separated them.

Kiba's problem was acting without thinking, so he was made to play Shoji with Shikamaru for a while. Kurenai's hope was that he would eventually learn patience and to think more before acting.

Hinata's problem was being distracted. It was solved by giving an exercise similar, but different from team seven's: instead of avoiding water attacks, she was supposed to avoid black rubber balls while catching white ones that would be thrown from time to time, to increase her ability to multitask.

Shino's problem was his excessive rationality. Not that he was emotionless, but since he analyzed the training exercise as not really actually harmful, he let his allies face their own pitfalls while concentrating on his own abilities. But this was also supposed to be a team exercise according to Kurenai, something he did not notice. He seemed a little ashamed of himself when he told them that.  
His exercise was team tactics planning.

Choji was too kind and willing to self-sacrifice, was barely able to do anything to be evaluated. What would he have done if it had been kunai like they were told to pretend they were? Choji, like Shino, was a bit ashamed of his lack of thought, he should have tried what Naruto and Shino did and attacked the two paintballs with his own.  
He, like Kiba, was made to play with Shikamaru in an attempt to stimulate his creativity.

Shikamaru just couldn't predict Naruto for some reason. He said so himself before Asuma had any chance to say anything. His solution was an attempt to play Shoji with both Kiba and Choji at the same time, hoping facing two opponents with different tactics would make it be as hard to predict as Naruto's natural unpredictability.

"Well, that is cool and all guys," interrupted Naruto after everyone talked about their own special training, "but do you guys think they think we are ready for a C-rank already?"

"Hmm… hard to tell," answered Shikamaru. "And don't use think so much on the same sentence."

"Then what do we do? We can't just ask for a C-rank, they'd know what's up!" Ino said.

"And why is that a problem?" replied Sasuke.

"It isn't," came from Shino. "They probably kept quiet about this to avoid us asking for one before we are ready. Thus we would need to convince them, just being allowed to take them is probably not enough."

"And after the first is convinced, the others would probably follow," completed Shikamaru. "If only to avoid some of us complaining."

Everyone but Ino, Kiba and Naruto looked at the teammate of the three as secretly as possible at those words.

"I believe Naruto should be the one to start it," he said seriously.

"Why?" asked a confused Sakura.

"Yes, as much as he isn't as bad as expected he isn't exactly what one would expect for this job," agreed Sasuke.

"He was good enough at convincing people to make you agree to come."

"…continue."

"He is friends with the Hokage, enough at least to not need to be formal to him, and to Iruka-sensei, who is acting as his aide. Also, he was the deadlast at our class…"

"Hey!"

"…which in this case is a good thing, his progress being a good show of how we evolved since the academy even if it only really applies to your team."

"I see…"

Thus everyone agreed to let Naruto try to get a C-rank mission first.

"Let's take it as our second mission for the day!" he said. "That way we can show our progress right before we try it."

"The meat is ready," said Choji, marking the end of the talk.

IIIII

"Neji, what are you doing?" asked Hiashi, confused, as his nephew left the Hyuga complex with a weird hat and a large net.

"I'm going fox hunting."

"Oh…" Hiashi said. After all, what _could_ he say to that?

Although, at his time they called it babe hunting, even if a fox was also a slang for a good-looking one.

That _was_ what he meant, right? Why else would Neji want to hunt foxes?

Man was he feeling old right now…

Also, the net was a bit worrying… just a bit.

"Maybe you should leave the hat though?"

"I can't! It's tradition!"

"Very well. I am sorry I said anything." Who was he to go argue against tradition, after all?

IIIII

Time for a grocery run for Naruto. Ever since his talk with Ino he was tryin to eat more healthily, meaning that even if he didn't like it he was eating more vegetables.  
Mostly in his ramen, but it is the fact he is eating them that counts.

He also had to get some more milk, his was spoiled.

And so it was he met with Choji.

"Oh, hey man! How are you?"

"Oh, hello Naruto. I'm fine."

"…Are you sure? You look a bit gloomy."

Choji just sighed and signed Naruto to follow him to a bench at a nearby park.

"Ino has been trying to make me diet again. Every time she tries something different."

"And is this bad? Ok Choji, I know you don't like it being pointed out but you don't have the most athletic and battle-ready body. Not that I'm sayin I'm better but…"

"Oh, I know that," he replied with a kind smile. "I've been teased a lot for it when I was smaller, after all. But there is a reason for that."

"Oh right, I think you said it once, you're big-boned, you just _look_ fat."

"Not… really," Choji said sheepishly.

"Uh? But you always say—"

"I know, sorry, but I was just lying because of the teasing. You see, we Akimichi are the best nutritionists of the village, and we put our own diet filled with the means to get fat for one reason…  
Fat is accumulated energy."

"Uh? I don't get it."

"When you eat, some of that food is turned into energy. And the energy that is not used is saved in the form of fat.  
My clan has learned to convert the fat directly into energy, so by being fat I am carrying loads of extra chakra just waiting to be used."

"I see." And Naruto did. If Personas weren't made with mostly _spiritual_ energy, since they are so energy-consuming he could only use them a number of times before running into trouble. With a saving of energy in the form of fat, he'd have a trump card in the case of emergencies.  
"But if it is so, why does Ino insist in making you diet… er, more?"

"I don't know. But she keeps doing that."

"She once told me that being fat was a bad thing, the first day we became friends. You don't think…"

"Not possible," Choji said. "I mean, we have been friends for years, and our parents were friends before us. She couldn't _not_ know. _Someone else_ should have told her."

"…Dude… I don't see any conversation it could come from besides she saying you're fat in front of her parents, and I think she is smarter than that. And I'm pretty sure you must have been with Shikamaru every time you were with her. Did you ever hear him telling her that?"

"Do you mean the problem is just that no one ever told her?"

"I think so. She seemed very proud of being so smart about nutrition at the time."

"Ok, now I feel like an idiot. Next time she brings it up I'll try to tell her about it if."

"Well, I'll be going. Have to buy my groceries for the week." And with that, Naruto left Choji to his own thoughts.

IIIII

Monday morning, Naruto this time gave his full attention to Gai… thus missing Neji giving his all trying to find something around them.

He did wonder about his weird hat and net, but…

IIIII

"So, our mission is… to catch a cat?" Naruto asked, his eye twitching.

"It is not a mere cat. It is the cat of the Daimyo's wife, Tora." Answered the Sandaime Hokage seriously.

"That explains the high price…" murmured Sakura.

"Yes. I do not believe I have to tell you that it is supposed to be brought alive and unharmed."

"Don't worry jiji! We will bring it to you in no time!"

"Very well. You are dismissed."

Team seven left the Hokage Tower, and Kakashi gave each of them a short-range ear radio.

"Cheking, over," said Naruto as soon as he got the radio on his ear.

"Checked, over," replied Kakashi seriously.

Naruto created a Kage Bunshin, and one of them did it again.

"Checking, over."

"Checked, over."

"Ok guys, I have a plan!" the other Naruto said suddenly, giving a thumbs up to Kakashi.

"What is it?" asked Sasuke, curious.

"Ok, until we find the cat all we can do is search, so I was thinking about just sending as many Kage Bunshin as I can and use them to search around. But I remembered something, Shino and Kiba told me the other day that they already did this mission, so I'll also look for them and ask for tips. What do you guys think?"

"Shouldn't we use this to help train our tracking?" asked Sakura, not completely disagreeing but thinking of it as going counter the objective of the mission.

"That'd mean we'd have to know where the cat escaped from," interrupted Sasuke. "The Daimyo's family's location is kept secret to all but their bodyguards for their protection while they are in the village. Letting us know of their location would be too much of a risk."

"That said, Sakura has a point. As much as I like the thought of you working together, this mission is supposed to be for our team, not team eight."

"Ok, but what about sending my clones to help us look?"

"Don't see why not. You'll search better if you separate and we just confirmed the cloned radios still work."

"Yosh! Let's go team!"

IIIII

The mission was a success… after a while.

The thing is, the clones found Tora quickly. The problem as, Tora also noticed the clones.

Each and every one of them.

Which brought them to a merry chase around the village.

Luckily, Sasuke was faster than Naruto in a sprint, even if he had a bit less stamina for a full run, so he was able to catch the cat by surprise.

Through the tail. By pulling it to the air.

Really, the scratch was expected. Not even Sakura, not even Sasuke himself could complain about it. Much, it still stung.

"Next time Naruto, just tell us where the cat is going instead of making it run even more!" Sakura complained.

"I thought it would be faster if I caught it when I got the chance…"

"Mah, don't be so hard on Naruto, Sakura. Tora is a chore for most genin teams. Believe it or not, we were considered quick.  
Although your idea has merit, Naruto's plan also had. It is like is said, the best laid plans of mice and men…"

"My eternal rival! It is good to see you in this youthful day!" sounded from in front of them as Gai exited the Hokage Tower, making the cat in Sakura's lap extend its nails. Thankfully Sakura was quick enough to hold it at arm's length before she was scratched.

"Oh, hello Gai. How are you and your students today?"

"We are doing mighty fine! Just got my team a C-rank mission to escort a brigde builder to the nearby Land of Waves! Truthfully it will be an youthful mission!"

"Oh hey, Lee! Tenten! Er… Neji?" Naruto called, confused.

"Yes?" he replied with the same sense of superiority as usual.

"If you are going on a mission… why are you still wearing your hunting hat?"

"…I like it."

IIIII

"It was the same… thing that killed the sheep," said one man, disgusted.

"Are you sure?" asked the second person, this one a woman.

"Yes, see, she was killed by a cut on the neck just like the sheep, and her organs were removed just as skillfully. But why are her legs open knees bent like that? Is it a sign?"

"More like a signature, I think.  
This is bad… the farmers already called a team from Konoha to search for whoever is attacking the sheep, but if they began attacking people…"

IIIII

**Yes, the Wave Mission was given to Team Gai... Team 7 will have to deal with a whole new mission created just for this story.**

**Hope you guys like what I got planned.**


	7. Investigation Team GO!

**Sorry for taking so long to release this chapter. I was working on my finals paper to finish my graduation at University.  
No, it isn't finished yet, but so many favorites and follows, and the review from some of you, really made me turn back and finish this chapter.**

**Also, I had a hard time with the investigation scenes. Of course, using characters from another manga and adapting them instead of creating OCs gave me a good idea of how they would react. Let's see if many of you recognize them.**

**Had a surprise choosing Naruto's disguise name. The popular Naruko always sounded fake to me, too close to Naruto to be conceivably an actual name… but it **_**is**_**. Yanagihara Naruko was a real person. Still, it was too close for my tastes, so I used Naru, a name I heard first in Love Hina used by a woman and then later found out is also useable by men (probably with different kanji). Close enough to be recognizeable to readers but still not so close it would sound like a fan-made fake name (even if it isn't). I think I used the explanation on the chapter itself too.**

**Oh, and… Before we begin, I'd like to answer a question that an anonymous reviewer asked: why was a Yamanaka jutsu in the Forbidden Scroll of Seals? Shouldn't they be kept as Yamanaka secrets?  
I was going to address this later in the story, but since someone already commented on it… The answer, I believe, depends on your belief of what the scroll should keep. I'll give you mine as my answer to the question.  
From the presence of the Tajuu Kage Bunshin we know is keeps techniques that are forbidden, in the example due to being dangerous to the user. And in the first episode there is fear that with it Naruto could unleash the Kyuubi, meaning it does not hold just the Second Hokage's creations. But from Orochimaru knowing the Edo Tensei without it we also know it is probably not the only source of the information about them. Thus we know that the scroll keeps only **_**a**_** copy of the technique, not **_**the only**_** copy (of course, it can be countered by Orochimaru learning it **_**from**_** the Scroll, but then the Third wouldn't have been as surprised, neither would Mizuki gain anything giving the scroll to Orochimaru).  
Why would they keep an archive of flawed and dangerous techniques though? Simply for archiving? Yes, I believe so. You see, the name of the scroll is Forbidden Scroll of **_**Seals**_**. However, despite the name no fuinjutsu seals were present as far as we know. I believe it has another meaning, that the techniques inside are considered "sealed", forbidden to be used and researched further. The clans would be able to keep their own copies, since they are the originators, but any deep research in them without approval would be considered a crime. All relevant data though has a copy in the scroll for perusal in case it would be unsealed under possibilities of making them usable or in case the risk was considered worth the use.  
Or also, as was pointed out by roanoak in a review, so they'd have the knowledge to recognize and counter it someone else believed it was worth the risk to use them, like a technique Bingo Book. Also, the archival part makes more sense when you remember that as a military organization with _thousands_ of members bureaucracy is needed, thus the common jokes about Hokages and paperwork. Well, the Scroll is one such paperwork.  
Makes sense to you? Think I am reading too much on a name?**

**IIIII**

"Yo old man! We brought the cat!" Naruto exclaimed happily as he entered the Hokage's office.

"Naruto!" yelled Iruka, who was working as his aide for the day, "Show more respect to the Hokage!"

"Nah, he doesn't care." Naruto waved his hand dismissively.

"He is right, I don't care," confirmed the Hokage with a laugh. "So Naruto-kun, this is around the time where you take your second mission…"

"Yeah, the cat was quicker than we thought… it seemed almost…" Naruto said as he looked Sakura delivering Tora to its owner and the cat struggling to escape her clutches, "…desperate."

Shaking his head, he looked back to Kakashi. "So, so! Now that we finished this mission it is time for the next one, right?"

"I guess so…" the jonin confirmed lazily. Actually they usually had some training between missions but he expected to do no training since Tora could count as a tracking and capture one. "So, Hokage-sama, what missions can we take?"

"Very well, let's see… we have: babysitting the chief counsellor's three year old, helping the chief counsellor's wife shopping, and taking up the potatoes."

"…Are the potatoes the chief counsellor's?" asked Naruto.

The Hokage took a more attentive look at the mission, and answered as deadpan as possible: "Yes."

"So… these are all the D-rank missions for now?"

"Yes Naruto, these are all the D-rank missions for now. All of them by the chief counsellor."

"And what about C-ranks?"

An angry Iruka spluttering was the answer he got.

"Naruto! You are still new at this! You have to do the easier jobs to get enough experience!"

"For two weeks! This is out third one, Iruka-sensei!"

"You are still too inexperienced!"

"Iruka-kun," the Hokage interrupted. "Naruto-kun has a point. They did the needed time and at least two missions each day. They have every right to ask for a higher-ranked mission… _if_ Kakashi believes they are ready."

"Hm… to be frank, it depends on the mission, Hokage-sama."

The Hokage took a deep lungful out of his pipe, before throwing a scroll at Kakashi. A few seconds reading it and the man bowed.

"Team seven accepts this mission, Hokage-sama."

"Yes!" Naruto commemorated besides a smiling Sakura and smirking Sasuke.

"Now team, that is enough," Kakashi said lazily. "Prepare yourselves for being about two weeks out of the village. Let us meet at the gate at zero seven hundred tomorrow."

"Yes sensei!" the three said seriously.

Then the four walked out the room and the tower together, completely ruining the effect.

"…I was kind of expecting you to shunshin out the window there, sensei…"

"Mah, I wasn't in the mood."

IIIII

"Shukuba Town? Isn't that relatively close? Why are we preparing for two weeks then Kakashi?"

"It is relatively close for ninja. It would take at least a day of walk by a civilian."

"We are ninja."

"You are just-graduated genin."

Sasuke just fumed.

"Well, there's also you two would need some time to recover if we went at full speed, which could be disastrous if we encounter bandits and you are tired," he said, pointing to Sasuke and Sakura.

"And we have no idea how long the mission is going to take. It is an investigative mission, it could take a day or it could take much longer. …Well, I'm pretty sure I'd only take a day but this is _your_ mission and I'm just there in case you three cannot deal with it by themselves."

"Investigative mission?" Sakura asked, beating Naruto to the punch.

"Yes, something, or rather someone according to the way it has been done, has been killing and then mutilating cattle of the farmers in the outskirts of the town. Your mission is to find whoever it is and capture them."

"Don't they have a civilian police force or something?" Naruto asked, not noticing Sasuke stiffening a bit.

"Yes they do, and a good one all things considered, their leader is a retired chunin." Kakashi confirmed. "But the farmers feel safer with us helping them, and who are we to say no to that?"

"Does the scroll say anything else, state of the bodies, why they believe it was human action?" asked Sasuke as professional as he could.

"Nope. We'll need to ask these things to the police force ourselves."

"Are you sure we are the best team for this? Wouldn't Team ten be better suited for this?" asked Sakura, as much as she didn't want to believe being inferior to Ino her team _was_ better suited for an investigation.

"We are not. But on the field it won't matter what your team specializes in when you need something, so you need to be at least generalized in the basics, which is why we are going anyway."

With a nod of understanding, there was no more talk of note until they arrived in town.

Shukuba town was a lot commercial, clearly made to take advantage of travelers probably going to visit the Leaf. It had lots of hotels and inns, restaurants, bars and the like right near the entrance. There was even a road called Fun Fun Avenue.

And of course, hidden away just a bit but closely accessible was the Red Light District with more adult things like brothels.

But Team seven was not there for fun. Or in town, really. They were on the outside, where the farms were located, going to meet the person chosen to represent their clients.

Where they meet their first problem.

"Ah, Kakashi. I am glad you were the one sent here."

"Hello Kyoko," returned Kakashi. "Thought you wouldn't bother being here, since we were called."

Naruto observed the woman. She was clearly fit, her height almost reaching Kakashi's (minus the hair), her skin was slightly tanned like his, her eyes were a dark green and her hair was a light blue in a ponytail. She reminded him of a female, not-secretly-an-asshole Mizuki. He'd like to bet they were related.

Also, she had a peg leg. Probably why she was retired.

"There were… complications with your mission."

Kakashi raised his visible eyebrow.

"Please follow me to Doctor Kamiya's office."

The whole team nodded seriously.

IIIII

"Sakura-chan, you are drooling."

Naruto's concern was answered with a punch by said girl.

"Am not! Be serious Naruto."

Sasuke snorted. She totally was.

Whatever, at least this time it wasn't for him.

From an impartial point of view, the doctor was attractive. A pretty face with dark hair and eyes, the hair brushed back giving him a professional appearance, and a slender body wearing a suit, it was what most would consider a bishonen.

These most apparently including Sakura.

"Hello, I am Kamiya Minoru. And this is my girlfriend, Kaname Makiko."

Makiko was much more plain than Minoru, but still a beauty, with ther wavy light brown hair and dark blue eyes. She was wearing a white shirt and a light purple skirt, and high heels.

She also held his arm possessively as she looked in Sakura's direction. Probably a bit lacking in confidence, Naruto thought. As cute as Sakura was, she was a bit too young for him… right?

"I am glad you arrived, Kyoko. Unfortunately it is as you thought," he said to the policewoman, his cheer evaporating.

"Excuse me?" asked Kakashi, confused.

"Oh, you weren't told yet?" Minoru said in a comforting tone. It was probably his professional tone, the one he used on patients. Well, to each profession their own, so Kakashi didn't feel insulted.

"I thought it was better to tell him here to avoid panic," Kyoko clarified to Minoru. Turning to team seven, her face completely serious, she continued: "There was a complication on your mission. It became… more meaningful, as well as possibly more dangerous."

"Wh-what do you mean?" asked Sakura, getting nervous.

"What were you told?" Kyoko replied with another question.

Kakashi gave her the mission scroll as an answer.

"I see. Well, I'll let Doctor Kamiya tell you what happened."

"Thank you Kyoko. Well, at first we were having problems with animals being killed with their organs being removed. The skill of the kills and mutilations had been high, showing either medical knowledge or experience. As far as is known I am the only doctor currently in town, which is why I am an advisor to the police in cases like this, but there may be others keeping a low profile. The farmers being targeted have no connection besides raising sheep though, so we can consider it unlikely it being a rivalry. So we thought it could be bandits trying to scare the farmers, and since it wasn't working it would soon be escalated.  
The farmers were scared of when it escalated though, and called you before it happened."

"It happened after the request was made. But it was not bandits," Sasuke said, his words being confirmed with a nod.

"The very next day after the request was made, we found out it happened. And it happened again this night."

"The request was sent three days ago," said Kakashi.

"Yes. The first victim is already past the rigor mortis, but the second is still during it."

"We believe whoever it was used the sheep for training before moving to their actual victims. But we have no relation between them besides their gender and… work activities," finished Kyoko.

"Can we see the bodies?"

"I have no problem letting _you_ see them, Kakashi, but…" Kyoko trailed off, trying to think of a way to say it politely.

"You know what this profession entails," was his response. "They need to get used to this sooner or later. At least this time it won't be during a battle where a second of distraction could mean death."

Saying this, he followed the doctor, the genin following in a somber mood.

The bodies were of very pretty women, even though the vision of terror in their eyes and their pale consistency took from that beauty. They had a cut across their neck, the probable cause of death, and one of them, probably the one suffering still from rigor mortis, had her legs spread and knees bent.

"I know how it looks," said the doctor, "but actually the cause of death was suffocation. We can confirm it by the tongues. The cuts were made after the fact for some reason."

"But why? I mean, it only shows us that he can cut people so well we have much less suspects!" Naruto asked.

"We could also get this knowledge from the mutilation of the corpses," replied Kakashi. "It could be ritualistic, like the position of the legs or the mutilation after death."

"After death?" asked Sasuke.

"Yes, you see, they did not bleed enough for the mutilation to be while the heart was pumping. Same can be said for the neck cut," answered the doctor.

"Which is why I believe it to be symbolical or ritualistic. It has no reason to be made otherwise."

"We have a list of suspects, actually," said the policewoman. "Well, as much of a list as possible in this situation."

Kakashi just looked at her seriously.

"We know it is someone with either medical knowledge or combat training, and that has stayed in town long enough to attack both the women and the animals. This diminishes the suspects to either doctor Kamiya or the six ex-shinobi currently living in town."

She showed them pictures of the six suspects.

"Sensui Shinobu, ex-jonin of Taki," she said showing a picture of a man in dark clothes with a dot on his forehead, slicked back hair and calm black eyes, "retired due to trauma on a job. Has no reason to do anything bad. Specializes in taijutsu and doton least likely culprit besides his constant partner.

Annote Itsuki, ex-chunin of Taki," this time the man had teal-colored hair reaching his shoulders, dark orange eyes and light blue chinese-style clothes, "retired to be able to care for Sensui, supposedly in a relationship with him. Specializes in genjutsu and capture techniques. He is known for being a bit obsessed with his charge.

Hagiri Kaname, ex-chunin of Konoha," this one was a boy in his sixteen, seventeen years with dark purple, almost black hair and light purple eyes wearing a choker and a red jacket, "removed from the force temporarily due to killing a target supposed to be taken alive, decided to leave the force and work as a mercenary. He specializes in thrown weapons, to the point he is said to be able to turn anything in a projectile. Not much of a suspect due to the actual killing method.

Makihara Sadao, ex-chunin of Kusa," the man had a slim face, spiky dark-grey hair, a large mouth with full lips and had his eyes closed in the picture. His body was clearly broad even though the pic was of just his face and a bit of his shoulders, "rumored to have been removed from the forces for developing cannibalistic tendencies. Specializes in taijutsu and kenjutsu. Only not the main suspect because despite the mutilations all body pieces were accounted for."

"Wait, the only reason he isn't the main suspect is…" Sakura asked, looking a bit sick.

"Because nothing has been eaten yet. Also because they have only been rumors so far and nothing concrete actually.

Continuing. Amanuma Tsukihito," the pic shows a young boy their age with messy brown hair and brown eyes, "ex-genin of Yu, retired because of psychological evaluation. Considered a prodigy in genjutsu, strategy and cryptanalysis, was evaluated as detached from reality and uncaring of others in dangerous levels.

And finaly, Mitarai Kiyoshi," the picture was of a boy slightly older than them with slicked-back wavy dirty-blond hair and blue eyes, "ex-genin also of Yu, retired due to trauma on a mission. Is sort of bipolar. Specialized in water techniques."

"Well, we now known our targets. If you'll excuse us doctor…" Kakashi says, as if feeling exhausted.

The doctor just waves him and the others out.

"Well, how are we going to investigate them?" asks Sasuke, a bit excited. As much as it brought bad memories, this was police work, this is what his clan used to do.

"Well, it goes a bit higher-level than I expected…"

"Just a bit?" Kyoko said humorlessly.

"I mean, we can try investigating them, but most of them are experienced chunin, and there is even one jonin. For this one, you'd need to at least be able to henge in someone you've never seen before, and that is a high-level henge."

"I can do it!" Naruto said, excited.

Sakura was trying to treat Naruto better. She really was. But it was hard to keep herself quiet before this.

"Honestly Naruto, do you really want us to believe it?"

"But Sakura-chan, you've seen it! You even complained about it!"

Complained about it? A henge? The closest thing to a henge he did she complained about was…

"No… not _that_…"

"Yup!" Naruto grinned.

"That… _distraction jutsu_?" Sasuke asked, surprised. He could see it leaving some opponents open to an attack with surprise, but for it to be an actual advanced technique?

Kakashi and Kyoko just looked confused at the three.

"I'm pretty sure you'd need clothes for this," Sakura tried to salvage the situation.

"I _can_ do clothes. They are easier than adding the whiskers actually, since as far as I know I am the only one that does have them so they are harder to imagine on someone else even if I made them up."

"What is going on here?" Kakashi asked finally.

"Naruto has a technique that he claims is this high-level henge. He used to do pranks to our academy teachers by turning into a naked woman," Sasuke explained.

"A _completely original creation_ naked woman."

"He claims it is an original creation."

Kakashi looked at Naruto in a new light.

"You learned a high-level henge… to use as a prank?"

"Of course not!" Naruto complained. "I learned the henge a bit badly, so I then learned something even better than the henge out of pure spite for those who laughed at me because I wasn't good at it, then turned this better version as a prank to show off even more!"

Kakashi nodded.

"But no one figured out what you had done until now, right?"

"Yeah…" Naruto replied, disappointed. "I even taught it to Konohamaru even before he learned the henge properly, but his 'elite teacher' didn't even notice. Bastard."

"What did I do?" Sasuke asked, surprised.

"Uh? No, I use bastard as an insult to a lot of people."

"Uhm." Sasuke felt… oddly disappointed?

"Hey, don't feel like that," Naruto said, punching him in the arm. "I may call them bastards too, but you are _the_ Bastard."

Sasuke wasn't sure if he should feel insulted or not. So he just turned away.

Kakashi laughed a bit.

Sakura was confused. Was this the male version of bonding?

Kyoko was annoyed.

"Back on track people."

"Right," Kakashi nodded. "Naruto, show me this henge of yours."

"Clothed!" Sakura added.

Shrugging, Naruto made the handsign.

After a poof of smoke, standing in his place was his (in)famous Oiroke transformation, a tall blonde girl with long, silky blond hair in twintails, medium-sized breasts and butt, small waist and wearing a purple yukata, a red obi and geta. The face was more heart-shaped than Naruto's, reminding Kakashi of his mother's, making clear the earlier unnoticeable differences between the two. But her body was different enough, and the skin, hair and eye colors were Naruto's, making it clear it was more a coincidental amalgam of various different people Naruto created.

"Hm, you said the whisker marks are your own addition and not something you always add?"

"Yeah, it was a prank so I wanted it to be recognizeable. It is actually easier to use the henge without them."

"Turn again without it, and let the hair loose. Should be enough."

Naruto was covered in smoke once more, and to Kakashi's surprise, only the whisker marks leaving had changed, Naruto deciding to let his… well, her hair free by hand.

"You are too used to this form…" Sakura commented.

"Well, female from a male is supposed to be harder than male to male, so I trained to learn it mostly with this one."

"Makes sense. Try your best not to overspecialize by accident though," Kakashi advised seriously. Naruto nodded in reply.  
"Well, this will help. At least now we can split ourselves in groups of two, one of us henged and the other just hiding the hitai-ate as backup if needed. Sakura, you are more used to being a girl hopefully, so you will go with Naruto."

Sakura's eyebrow twitched, but she substituted the forehead protector for a red ribbon like she used to do before getting it.

"So, how should we call you in this form?" Sasuke asked. "In case we need to contact you but would rather not break your cover."

"Well, I researched some female names and found Naruko, close enough for me to remember and answer if called by surprise, but then I thought 'too close'. So then I found out the name Naru that is close too but not so much to be so obvious and is genderless so I could use it even if I was someday hiding out as another guy. And since it's just a syllable shorter, but written with different letters, speaking it I'd answer instinctively as if it was a nickname."

"Well, alright then Naru, as I said you and Sakura will be one team and me and Sasuke the other. You will talk with the other… working girls first, then go through the list in descending order. Me and Sasuke will go on ascending order. We will probably meet while looking for the middle suspect, if we don't we meet here at the doctor's office."

The three nodded.

"The red-light district is that way. Not really far from here. Mitarai supposedly spends most of his time in a stand near the fountain in the park."

Kakashi nodded in thanks. "If you'll excuse us, Kyoko."

That said, the four left the clinic.

**IIIII**

"So, Ino or Tenten?" Naruto asked Sakura out of nowhere as they walked.

"W-what?" Sakura asked back, eyes wide.

"Should I base my personality on Ino or Tenten? Ino has a more charismatic personality—"

"I think you mean seductive," Sakura added a bit bitter. Both Ino and Naru were ahead of her appearance-wise, as much as it hurt to accept it.

"Well ok, sensual and charismatic, thus seductive, but I was aiming more for the charismatic part.  
On the other hand Tenten has more initiative and spirit on her actions, which would also attract people."

"What about me?" Sakura asked a bit bitter.

"Oh, you are right here, why would I need to pretend to be you when I have the real deal?"

Sakura couldn't help to feel a bit happy for that. "That's not what I mean."

Naru looked at her a bit.

"To be honest, your personality is not very fit for this… hear me out before complaining."

Sakura crossed her arms, but glared into Naru's eyes.

"You are passionate, and that is a good thing, but not for this. Your actions are fueled by your mind and your heart, and to pretend to be someone else I need to act in a way I would not usually do, thus follow my mind but _not_ my heart… not that my mind is that big of a deal either."

Sakura gave the… other girl? an honest smile.

"Maybe… but it is much better than anyone, maybe even you, gave it credit, and as much as you talk about me your problem is that you follow your heart more than you follow it. Are you sure _you_ are good enough for this?"

"Oh, I have no doubt that I am not," the blonde replied. "But it is not like we have much choice. People are dying, and I will do everything I can to protect them."

Sakura just looked at him with a smile. He was a good person when he wasn't asking her out on dates, she could see how Ino could have befriended him.

"I think I'll go with Tenten. I just don't think I'm good enough not to botch an Ino impression yet."

Naru stopped walking for a second… 'Did Kitsune just switch with Agathion by itself?'

"What happened?" Sakura asked, worried.

"My Persona… switched by itself?"

"Well, Persona also means 'personality' so maybe… it switched because you thought about acting like Tenten? Since you were pretending to have another personality…"

"It switched to make it easier for me? Hmm, makes sense. I remember I was told something about changing my Persona making me act more like who I got it from."

Sakura thought for a bit.

"Hey Narut—Naru, you get more Personas the more friends you get, right?"

"Eh, not really. I mean, I am friends with Ino, but can't use the Persona I got from her yet, not good enough mentally if the headache was any clue. I also _feel_ like I can use other Personas from the Arcanas I can summon already, just again not good enough. But the better friends I am with them the more… efficient I am at using them. Does it make any sense?"

"And… are you really their friend?"

"On my side, at least. It's not supposed to work well unless I actually try to understand them. I'll tell the truth, these are my first friends, I am not so sure how friendship works yet. But I really hope that this is what friends do."

Sakura hummed.

"What about me?" she asked a bit nervous.

Naru shrugged. "Well, I still like you, but I was just pushing you away asking you out. For now I just want your friendship more."

"Do I give you any Personas?"

"Yeah. You saw her, Pixie." Pixie soon appeared in front of the girl

"She is pretty."

"…seriously, if you want me to stop trying to ask you on dates you got to stop feeding me lines."

"What?"

"Not answering. I like my head where it is."

She then started swatting the Persona in the air, surprising Sakura.

"What's wrong?"

"It said that I should have said you're cuter anyway. I like not having a fist in my head, thank you very much."

Sakura rolled her eyes. "I would not have hit you just for complimenting me now that you stopped asking me on dates."

"Well how would I know? I don't really see a reason for hitting me for asking you out. You don't see Sasuke hitting any of the girls."

"Well yes, but we barely knew each other and you asked me out. Then after I said no you kept asking and asking. To be honest it is a little creepy."

"Well, I'm not good with the whole human interaction thing, so I just did what I saw you doing to Sasuke. Well ok, he ignored you instead of saying no, but you girls were there asking him out again later, so why shouldn't I?"

Sakura had no answer. Now that she thought about it, it was a bit hypocritical of her to react like that when she and every other girl did the same…

"Either way, as long as you don't push it, I don't think there is a girl that dislikes compliments. They may be a bit embarrassed but they won't really dislike you for it."

Naruto hmmed as he switched Personas back to Agathion.

**IIIII**

"So, when are you going to teach me and Sakura this higher-level henge?"

"It's not exactly a higher level henge, it is more like an advanced use of the basic one. It is like the difference between throwing a kunai and throwing a kunai blindfolded, anyone that knows one can do the other but it is much harder usually. Naruto learning it is much less of a surprise than him teaching someone that barely knew the usual henge, to be honest. That was quite a leap in less than a day, from what Ebisu complained about Naruto corrupting the Third's grandson."

Sasuke hmmed. So Naruto was a good teacher when he knew what he was talking about…

"Think he would teach me and Sakura?"

"If he gets the idea he may teach all of his friends. Doubt he would exclude you."

They kept walking in silence. It was getting dark, so most people were leaving the town for their homes. Thus, the streets they were going through were empty.

"Excuse me," sounded a voice behind them.

Sasuke turned around, seeing someone in monk robes. In one hand he held a shakujou, a six-ringed (in this case, probably representing the six states since he seemed like a novice) monk staff, and in the other he held a straw hat. His eyes were purple, and his slicked-back hair was silver.

**IIIII**

"Excuse us," Sakura called the young woman at the entrance of the place.

"Yes?" the woman asked, a bit nervous. No wonder, with the killed girls…

"We would like to talk to your employer," Naruto said with a smile.

"Oh? Oh, I'm sorry, we are not hiring right now… not that you'd have trouble being hired if we were. But your friend is, er… a little too young."

"Ah, no, not for that," Naruto said, ignoring the blushing Sakura. "We are actually ninjas investigating the killed girls," he whispered to her.

Sakura showed discretely the hitai-ate in her pocket.

"Oh, I see," the woman said, a bit embarrassed. "Wait a bit, I will call the madam."

Sakura watched the woman enter the place nervously.

"Are you sure that was wise?"

"Are you kidding me? I'm the stupid one here, remember? But I could tell she is scared, so I thought she would help us better if we told her the truth, and since she works here she would be discreet."

"You are not stupid Naru, you just don't use your brain much."

"Thanks."

"I'm serious. When I see you do think things through you are pretty smart. You just… ignore it most of the time."

"Hm…"

Was she saying the truth? Well yes, he was acting smarter from time to time, but he had to be honest and say that part of it was the influence of the Personas…

Naru then remembered that this was kind of what Igor said Personas do, show what he would do when seeing an event from an outsider's point of view, but still using his own brain.

Er… What she would do.

But she was really a he?

"Disguises are confusing."

"Uh?"

"Nothing big, don't mind it."

At that point, the woman returned, and ushered them to a room deep in the place through a passage behind the building, to hide them from the clients. Soon, they were inside the madam's office.

"Welcome. Please, sit down," the older woman said cordially. Naru sat down, followed by Sakura a little nervously.

"Something wrong, my dear."

"N-no, nothing is wrong. I just didn't expect to come to this kind of place…"

"I see. I admit, not many girls from nice families come here. But do not worry, even if unsavory for most it is just business for us, just like being a ninja is seen badly by some civilians."

"Excuse me?"

"Yeah Sakura-chan, well just like in a brothel the girls are known to sell their bodies for money we ninjas are known for infiltration, sabotage and assassination, even if this is mostly done by ANBU. Hell, all those rules they made us memorize in the Academy are about even us acting more like fighting machines than people, too. We really have no right to judge them."

"Oh, don't be so harsh with her darling. It is normal for girls raised by the middle to upper class to be taught to stay away from us. Now, about why you are here…"

"Right. We split in duos to make investigating faster so we can find the culprit earlier. We have a small list of suspects, but they are more 'those known to have the skills to do it' than 'those we think did it', so we came here first to get any clues you may have."

"Hmm… Well, the only things I could say is that they had their checkup with doctor Kamiya, and spent a little too long in town… and arrived really happy with something, but did not tell us what happened. The next day they went missing during work hours and the next time they were seen…"

"I see… Did any other one of them seemed happy like that today?"

"Well, one of them was, actually, but that was because she got a secret date. But she had to cancel it because things are too dangerous. She got really sad about it."

"Think it may be related?"

"Doubt it. She refused to tell us who it was, but she did say he had no way to be related to any of this."

"Hmm, guess there is nothing to be learned from there then… If she refused to tell you, doubt she would tell us. And you Sakura-chan, what do you think? Anything you want to ask?"

"Uhm… No, can't think of anything…"

"Well, this is all I can say… sorry I couldn't do any more to help."

"Don't worry about it. Thank you for your time."

"Thank you for yours."

**IIIII**

"How will we interrogate them without them knowing we are interrogating them?" Naru asked, a bit apprehensive.

"Well, we could try to start a conversation, then we ask them their opinions about this all." Sakura answered, resisting the urge to joke about him being able to say "interrogate".

"Sakura-chan, one of them is a jounin. Also, they are a couple, unless you are willing to pretend we are too I think they may think we are hitting on one of them and be insulted. And you are too young not to draw attention so you'd need to stay out here anyway."

At that point, a waitress arrived besides them at the entrance.

"Excuse me," she said in a confused tone, "misters Sensui and Annote asked if you two would like to join them at their table."

"Well, this is not good," Naru said.

"Let's just get this over with," Sakura replied, pulling the apparently-older girl to the table.

The two men did not bother to say anything or even separate themselves as the girls sat on the same table as them. Sensui kept a neutral face, while Annote had a gentle smile.

"I'd like to thank you for respecting our relationship and not trying the seduction route," Annote said.

"Meh, it'd just fail anyway," was Naru's reply. "Not like either of us are in your tastes."

Sakura… just kept looking to the two.

"Unfortunately your actions betrayed your inexperience," said Sensui, seriously. "Just because we are retired does not mean we lost our enemies, thus we are always keeping an eye and ear open, so we heard your whole conversation. Of course, jumping to the side as soon as you found us and staying close enough you could watch us did not help. Next time, pretend you didn't see the target but to signal the other, and give some distance so we could forget you for a bit before planning and returning. It may take your eyes out of your target for a while, but it will avoid suspicions and if you did it right the target will continue on their way so you don't need to pay so much attention to them."

He drank a bit of his cup, and continued.

"From what I heard, you are doing an investigation. Judging by your inexperience, I believe it is your first one. I used to be known as a good investigator, I could give you some advices… but from the way you were acting, we are for some reason suspects?"

Naru nodded. "Nothing personal, but all we know yet is that the killer is good with a small blade and has knowledge of the human anatomy judging by the cuts on the victim… You are the least suspected one, but…"

"I see, as far as is known there are only seven possible people in town. Well, I am sorry to say that it was not either of us. If it was me, unless it was to give a message Itsuki would have gotten rid of the body for me, it is not our first time doing this. And Itsuki could very well do it for himself."

The two girls' eyes widened.

"Do not act so surprised. I used to be a known jounin, and even at peace times there is the assassination mission here and there."

"What Shinobu means," interrupted Annote, "is that as much as it is frowned upon, there still is the most dark side of the shinobi even outside war, if not all human beings, and he even retired because he saw one part of this side too many."

The two girls nodded.

"Continuing, your approach was not wrong per se. You were trying to find a way to start a conversation, and since one of you looks so attractive the seduction avenue is par for the course. I myself used it many times despite my own preferences."

Naru nodded, taking it to heart.

Sakura dropped her head. 'One of you?'

"Do not take it badly, miss," Annote went to the rescue once again. "Shinobu only meant that she looks on her older teens, an acceptable age, while you look like a recent graduate. I am sure that when you look her age you will look just as good."

'Doubt it,' Sakura couldn't help thinking.

"But, as with us, with every suspect you should take a different approach. Some may also be gay, or not old enough or too focused on their job or loyal to their significant other for example, so you will need to turn it from a seduction to an attempt for friendship."

"Oh, don't worry, Naru is good at that," Sakura said, feeling a bit better.

"I am?"

Sakura just rolled her eyes.

"Well, I do not want to go too deep into this case, it brings up bad memories. But I will give you one last tip: do not dismiss anyone. Unless you have proof of innocence anyone could be a suspect."

The two girls nodded and thanked them for the help as the two older men kissed. Naru turned to go away, since there was nothing else to be done there, but then she noticed something wrong with Sakura, who was looking transfixed to the two.

"Sakura-chan, what's wrong?" she asked the red-faced girl.

"There is nothing wrong with your teammate, girl," Sensui answered.

"She is just a fan of male same-gender couples," completed Annote.

Naru blinked. Did they just say that Sakura was a yaoi fangirl?

**IIIII**

"Hagiri Kaname now. And stop imagining him with Sasuke."

"I already said I am **not** a yaoi fangirl!"

"And I already said I don't care. Now, Hagiri."

"I thought you meant you didn't care if I was!"

"Of course not! How can I make jokes about it if I ignore it? Hagiri."

"Right… Well, he entered that club. Doubt they'd let us enter though… well, me."

"Right. Time to put this through the test," Naru agreed, and changed Personas.

She went inside the club, the bouncer giving her just an once-over before letting her enter. She knew she was attracting a lot of male attention, but her eyes were focused on the male sitting in the back sipping a soda while surrounded by giggling girls.

He didn't seem very interested in them though, judging from the frown…

Ignoring the hostile glares from the girls, she stood in front of him for a bit analyzing the boy before finally speaking.

"My my, if you aren't Mister Popular," she said in a teasing tone.

The boy's frown deepened, but he said no words.

"And who are you supposed to be?" asked one of the girls, in a tone that was supposed to be a warning.

"Someone that noticed that despite your company he is not being entertained much."

"And what could you possibly do that would entertain me?" he finally said, drawing more giggles from the girls surrounding him.

"Something no one in this bunch of girls seems to ever be able to provide…"

All the girls looked at her in hate as she pulled a chair and sat right in front of him, and the boy rolled his eyes. Naru could already imagine what he thought she was hinting at…

"An interesting conversation partner that can talk to you instead of giggling the night away while expecting you to fall for her looks."

The boy smirked, finally interested in something.

"I admit, that _is_ a bit rare around me."

The other girls gasped. Both Hagiri and Naru ignored them.

"But why would I want to talk to you?" he asked, crossing his arms. Naru shrugged.

"One thing I learned in my life, a new friend is never too much. You seemed like someone that needed one, and unlike the others someone who would be satisfied in a girl actually wanting to be one instead of taking you to her bed."

Hagiri smiled. The girls were split between being swooned by the smile and angry at Naru for making him smile by insulting them. Naru just let a smile back.

"You remind me of my sister," he finally said. "Not appearance-wise, and not in the way you act, but… in your smile. I can't explain, really. She is a pure person, studying to be a vet not for money, but because she just loves animals. You…"

Naru took his pause as her turn to speak.

"I'm not so selfless… actually, the opposite. I am an orphan, but no one wanted to adopt me. In fact, everyone sort of ignored me, even the other kids. That continued for years."

"I heard once that it is better to be hated than to be ignored…"

"I'm not so sure, but it felt like that. Their eyes… they were all so cold, like if I died, no one would morn me. I started acting up, pulling pranks and the like, so they'd look at me with annoyance. Better than the way they were looking before. I wanted to become someone important, so no one would be able to ignore me anymore."

"Did you want to hurt them to get their attention? Do you want to get revenge on them?"

"No, of course not!" Naru replied, affronted. "I just wanted to show everyone how good I was, that the one they looked down on was able to rise above it, above _them_. I wanted them to feel envious, yes, but never to hurt them."

"You keep using the past tense. Did something change?"

"Yeah…" Naru answered with a smile. "I got a friend. They showed me how petty I was being, how I could be something more. They like me for who I am, not who I could or could not be."

"You may call it petty, but you don't know how many people become bad for less," said Hagiri. "I was once a ninja, and I was able to see the worst. So many stupid people doing bad things for the stupidest reasons… I will tell you the truth, if most of humanity die tomorrow, I won't bat an eye.  
But then there are those like my sister. Like you. Those that see the best, or that were good enough not to be affected by the worst."

"Thank you."

She looked around. The other girls seemed no more aggressive, but completely immersed in their talk.

"I better leave. It seems like the friend I came with may be getting bored by herself."

"See you later Uzumaki."

Naru froze.

"Your henge is great, but I recognized your story."

The girls looked confused. Hagiri had a smile on his face.

"My words are still the same. And if you need my help for anything, you just need to call."

"Thank you Hagiri-san," Naru answered, her head low.

"No big deal. I won't go out of my way for many anymore, either for good or bad, but people like my sister and you… it would be a pleasure to help. And call me Kaname."

"Thank you Kaname. I'll be going now."

"Feel free to visit anytime you are around town."

Outside, Sakura was waiting.

"How was it?"

"He recognized me."

Sakura sighed. The first person was a jounin, the second was always with him and the third was from Konoha. She was feeling like Kakashi-sensei was setting them up to fail.

"Well, at least they were the least suspect ones. Good to gain experience as we move down the list. Did he feel insulted?"

She shook her head in negative.

"He didn't even seem to care why I was there, actually. Seemed not to know of anything he'd be suspect of, just jaded with the ninja world. He even offered his help if I ever needed it."

"Well, he _was_ amongst the least suspected," Sakura replied. "But remember what Sensui said, do not dismiss him yet."

"Yeah, I'm not. I'm not dismissing even Sensui himself, even if his points were good."

That said, they left the club, and went searching for the next name on the list.

**IIIII**

"Hey there!" said the older blonde girl behind Amanuma. "What level are you at?"

"Second to last," he replied.

"How do you know? Did you finish it before?"

"Yeah. I have all the records of this machine but one. Someone got a place during the day so I'm cleaning the machine from them again."

"Seems a bit arrogant, don't you think? Acting as if only you were supposed to win at these machines?"

Amanuma shrugged.

"I am the best at everything. Just because my last bosses didn't appreciate my skills does not make it any less true."

"Yeah, really have to disagree there."

"Oh yeah?" he said as he finished the final boss. "Care to try your luck?"

**IIIII**

"Well, it was a good try, but I am the best," Amanuma said smugly.

"I want a rematch."

"Suit yourself."

Naru angrily shoved the token in the machine.

"Why do you act so irritating?" she asked as the match began.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, why do you act like such a spoiled kid? You got the skills, yes, but you are not doing anything with them, you aren't teaching others, you aren't competing on any actual competitions… you are just playing big fish in this small pound and act as if it was your call to the world."

"I tried using my skills for more once. I was kicked out for no reason."

"What do you mean?"

"I used to live in a ninja village. I wasn't a frontline fighter, more on the Intelligence side, but I was the best at that.  
I was not appreciated as I should have been. They said I was 'too detached from the others'… as if it made any difference."

"But as Intelligence don't you need to think like the others do to be able to predict their actions? I mean, people aren't emotionless and predictable as machines, you need to put yourself in their shoes to be able to think what they would do."

"You think so? _I_ think I was doing well enough. Never lost a battle or a team member as result of my planning."

"Yet," Naru countered. "Let us use these games as an example. They are not really unbeatable with just one token. You probably beat them many times yourself. Yet this is not the trend. People usually fail, and not just because of the random factor, but because of human error. Even someone who can finish it on his best day can fail on his worst too. You could imagine the plan perfectly on your head, but you were not dealing with just a plan, but with people on both sides. The secret to failure hinged not just on what you could or couldn't predict, but on human actions on both sides. If you could not predict either one…"

Naru then did something he did not expect. She parried his attack, and took advantage of the opening to release a special, chaining a combo and finishing Amanuma's character.

"You lose."

"W-what? How?"

"Games don't judge. I had experience, just pretended I was worse on our first game. Which takes us to our talk. You underestimated me. The human factor took the front. You won't next time, but if there were lives on the line there would not be a next time.  
Think about it."

That said, she left the boy to his games.

"Naru, what's wrong?" Sakura asked, worried.

"He is about as good as he thinks. I had to force myself to channel Shikamaru there. Summoning a Persona didn't make me as smart as him, but made me focused enough to give him a lesson."

"What—why?"

"I doubt it is him, really. He may be a genius our age, but where it counts… he is still too childish. He was paralyzed just from me mentioning that people may die if he makes a mistake, like he never thought about that."

"I see. Well, good, I guess. I really don't feel well thinking about someone our age doing that."

Naru kept quiet at that.

**IIIII**

"Hey, my pretty, why don't you come sit with me?" said the drunk.

"No, thank you," replied Naru, smiling politely.

"Oh come on, it's not like you have anyone better to sit with!"

"That's ok, I'll sit at the bar."

"Don't be like that!" the man said, visibly getting annoyed. Naru sighed, maybe using such an attractive form to enter a bar at night wasn't a good idea.

"You think you are too good for me, don't you?"

"With the way you are acting, a goat would be too good for you," replied a voice behind them. "Not that you would be against it."

Turning around, Naru met face to chest with Makihara Sadao.

He was tall! And as wide as they expected.

"It was one time!" replied the drunk, embarrassed.

"Yeah yeah. Now leave the lady alone."

The drunk promptly did so, leaving the bar.

"I'm sorry miss. Never seen you around here."

"I'm not from town. Just passing through for a while."

"I see. We don't get visitors much. Would you like a drink? I'll pay."

He sat down on the other side of a table, leaving the closer seat for Naru. Well, she did owe him one. Besides, talking to him was the reason she was there anyway.

"Nothing with much alcohol, I still need to go back to where my friends are. I was walking through the town and it was getting late, and got thirsty and decided to enter this bar just for a quick drink."

"I see. Well, I better enjoy it then. A good drinking companion is rare for me nowadays."

"Oh? Why?"

"Well, first there are my looks."

Naru turned her head to the side, to look at him better. "I admit I've seen better-looking guys, but you are not ugly either."

"Haha, thank you, it is worth a lot coming from a beauty like you," he scratched the back of his head, smiling. "But there are also the rumors."

"Rumors?" Naru asked. Were they about his cannibalistic tendencies? Or was there more things they weren't told about him?

"Well, I have the Bishokuka Kekkei Genkai." Seing the confused look on Naru's face, he explained: "Kekkei Genkai is a ninja thing, kind of a superpower passed in the family. Mine, the Bishokuka, makes me able to copy the Kekkei Genkai of others if I…"

At this point, he stopped, and began staring into his cup.

"You don't need to tell me if you don't want to."

"No, it's ok. It's just that, eating the body of others is a bit disgusting, even if it is for power. I didn't like doing it, but I did for my village. But one day, the secret was out. My brother was captured by rogue ninjas, and it was tortured out of him. To hide the fact that they used us to learn the weaknesses of enemy abilities, specially because we were at peace time, we were accused of doing it for our own sake and kicked out.

Only me and my brother were ninjas, so only I had to suffer the rumors of becoming a cannibal since he was dead. At least my parents and sister will be able to live a normal life."

Naru nodded, nursing the cup of her untouched drink.

"Oh, did I put you off from drinking? I'm sorry, I didn't want to… Damn, I should have thought better before mentioning eating people, I am sorry."

"No, no. Well, I don't feel like drinking anymore, but is more because of what you suffered and what your old village did than your eating skills."

"I am glad."

Naru was feeling a bit bad right now. Makihara was being such a nice guy, and clearly interested in her, but she was not interested, being actually a guy listening to him for her investigation, and could find no way to leave without making him feel bad.

"Excuse me," interrupted a third person.

Turning around, Naru was faced with a bouncer.

"That kid over there said she has been looking for you," he said, pointing to Sakura by the entrance.

"Oh, that's Sakura-chan. I need to go, thank you for the drink."

"You are welcome," Makihara replied, clearly disappointed.

Once outside, she walked a bit with Sakura until they were out of earshot before turning to the girl.

"Thanks for the save. I had no idea how to get out of there."

"You're welcome. You seemed uncomfortable."

"Yeah… I don't think I like seducing info from guys… it gets a bit too intimate for my tastes."

"Well, at least there is only one more to get info from."

**IIIII**

Mitarai was drinking another bottle. The barman let him, he could pay and had lots of resistance, was a bit of a mean drunk, always insulting everyone, but never actually started a fight either.

"Rough day?" asked a female voice as someone sat on the chair in front of him.

"Rough life, more like it. You get PTSD and what do they give you? A boot! Then close the whole village and become a tourist attraction. Humans suck."

"Humans as a whole?"

"Yeah. We are the lowest of the lowest. If all humanity died today but me, I'd make my life mission to piss on everyone's graves," he continued. "Everyone is selfish bastards, not caring for anyone else but those we care about, and we always resort to violence. Violence and sex, we could be resumed as." Taking a look at the other person's clothes, he continues, "but you knew that."

"Excuse me?"

"Whores like you are the example of how bad we are. Your only way of living is by letting yourselves be used as entertaining by those above you with money to throw around at your feet.  
Not saying that you girls are as bad as most, since you live in misery like that you are probably the best. The rich ones in power man, those able to just throw their money around and get whatever they want, they should be hung first by their own innards. You girls should be the ones actually ruling us, you who felt what it is to be in misery."

He took one more gulp, right from the bottle. "One day, I'll kill them all. Just you wait.  
This world is disgusting."

His table companion wisely left him at this point of his rant, deciding she heard enough.

**IIIII**

"So, which of them is the most likely candidate?"

"No idea from me…" Naru said, disappointed. They kept talking to everyone until late in the night, and were now on their way to the doctor's office through the dark and deserted streets. "Makihara looks a bit creepy but seemed like a good guy at heart, and Mitarai clearly hates people, but he didn't sound like he ever acted on it. Plus, you know, his opinions."

"Same here…" Sakura agreed with a sigh.

She looked around, at the closed stores. They had some good stuff, and for a lower price than Konoha. She wondered if Kakashi-sensei would let her buy something after the mission was over? That mirror she was looking at seemed so pretty…

Then, out of a sudden, Sasuke's image appeared there. She couldn't help but rub her eyes.

"This is not normal… I think I may be a bit obsessed. Guess I _really_ need some help…"

"Thank god!" she heard Sasuke's voice say… coming from the mirror.

"GAH!"

"Sakura-chan! What's wrong?" said Naru, jumping beside her teammate. Sakura turned to her, ready to say it was nothing and she was just tired and imagining things…

And the expression on her face made it clear Sakura wasn't her imagination.

Naru and Sakura looked mystified at the small mirror behind the shop's window. They could see Sasuke, Kakashi and a third person there, even hear their voices, but no one was behind them.

"We finally found you!" said Sasuke, looking very relieved. "Look, we need you two to search for something for us so we can go back!"

"Go back? What do you mean, what's going on?"

"Naru, this is serious." Kakashi interrupted. "This is Hidan. He will explain what we need you to do."

**IIIII**

_The man was smiling pleasantly, but Sasuke could feel Kakashi's body tightening in preparation for an attack, which confused the teen._

"_Sasuke, stay back!" the sensei commanded, nervous._

"_Whoah, calm down, shinobi-san! I changed, gave up my old ways. I don't want any trouble," the man said calmly, as if he already expected such a reaction. _

"_Kakashi-sensei," Sasuke said, confused, "what is wrong?"_

"_He is Hidan, an S-class missing nin from Yu. You need to run, now! I'll do my best to hold him back!"_

"_Whoa, whoah, no need for that! I didn't do anything to deserve to be treated like that."_

"_You killed your neighbors before leaving Yu and then joined a religion that asks its followers to commit ritualistic murder."_

_Sasuke's eyes widened. This serene man in front of him was capable of all that?_

"_I meant, to you. I know I don't have the best past, but am I doing anything wrong right now?"_

"_You are said to be a gleeful and merciless murderer."_

"_I changed. People do that."_

"_Not without a reason."_

"_I had a reason for my actions, and I have a reason for my change."_

_Kakashi was staring fiercely at the missing nin, while Sasuke was preparing himself to run at the first sign of attack, but Hidan himself was only standing there, arms raised in surrender._

_And then a cat landed between them, and everything but the three turned into tones of gray._

"_Shit," Hidan cursed, "this is bad." Ignoring Kakashi and Sasuke now, he put his hat back on._

"_What did you do?" Kakashi asked, nervously._

"_Do you think I'd be stuck in here with you if it was my doing?"_

"_What do you mean?" Sasuke asked confused. "Where are we?"_

"_Someone used a Kimon Tonkou spell on us and trapped us into a reverse reality."_

"_And what does this mean?" Kakashi asked, still apprehensive but looking at his surroundings._

"_It means, shinobi-san, that whoever did this wanted us out of the way. Luckily I know enough to find us a way out. We need to pass through the Ba Gua gates in order. The tricky part is finding where they are, and we'd need the help of someone on the outside world to find the right order…"_

"_My other students are on the outside world."_

"_Good, if they get near a mirror we can use them to communicate… Shit!"_

"_What?" Sasuke asked._

"_As I said, hoever did this wanted us out of the way. And since I just arrived in town, the target was probably one of you. My guess is on the jounin.  
Now, if they wanted you out of the way, why not go for the whole team?"_

_Kakashi and Sasuke's stomachs dropped. Naruto and Sakura were outside. Naruto was disguised as a woman. And all victims until now were female._

**IIIII**

"Ok, we are locked in a reverse reality. Think a sort of containment seal with a weird kind of lock to open. We need you to find—Hey girl, are you paying attention?"

"S-sorry. Sakura-chan, this seems important!" Naru said, turning to the pink-haired girl. "Stop pulling… my… sleeve…"

Naru froze in place. Sakura was pale, and looking terrified of whatever was on the other way of the road. With a shiver on her back, Naru turned to that side.

Whoever that was, it was someone very suspicious, wearing a black trench coat and a fedora. But it served its purpose of hiding their identity. And with the distance not even their height was discernible.

But what really scared them was the being right beside the person. The being wearing the same clothes, but with a visible head that looked like skin stretched over a skull, without nose and only small light gleams inside the orbits. And, most surprising of all, floating in the air.

And then the person spoke, and the words finally identified the both of them.

The murderer… and his Persona.

"**Jack Ripper! Blight!"**

**IIIII**

**Naruto's current Personas**

**Fool**:  
*Kitsune: Bash, Garu, Tarunda, Resist Wind, Weak Fire

**Magician**:  
*Agathion: Agi, Hama, Immune Fire, Weak Ice  
*Nekomata: Agi, Cleave, Resist fire

**Lovers**:  
*Pixie: Dia, Zio, Patra, Pulimpa, Me Patra, Resist Elec

**Chariot**:  
*Slime: Bash, Poisma, Tarunda, Red Wall, Rakunda, Resist Bash, Weak Fire  
*Ara Mitama: Bash, Rakukaja, Agi, Resist Bash, Weak Wind  
*Nata Taishi: Bash, Rakunda, Dekunda, Resist Fire, Weak Elec

**Hermit**:  
*Azumi: Bufu, Makajam, Resist Ice, Immune Dark, Weak Elec  
*Forneus: Bufu, Skewer, Tarukaja, Resist Ice, Weak Elec

**Fortune**:  
*Empusa: Bufu, Mutudi, Resist Ice, Weak Fire


	8. Fool vs Jack

**Important: Readers who played Persona 4 may recognize Blight as a strong Phys Attack. While those who played Shin Megami Tensei IV may recognize it as a **_**weak **_**Cut Attack.  
The version used in this fic is the second one. But be honest, those who only played P4 and did recognize it were surprised, weren't you?  
To be honest, I forgot about the existence of the P4 one. The SMT4 one had a much more impressive impact in me, being a very deadly skill for the point it is first presented to the player – by an enemy in a sidequest stronger than the following story boss.**

**IIIII**

Before the name of the Persona was even finished been called, Sakura suddenly found herself flying in the air. Looking down, she could see Naru with her outstretched arms, probably from launching her. The purple energy wave, wide enough to cover the whole street, reached her before she could do anything else, giving her a cut on her back. Sakura's eyes widened as she fell back to the ground, the apparently-older girl's purple clothes gettting an increasing red blot.

"Don't worry, Sakura-chan. It does not hurt as much as it looks," Naru said, noticing the look of fear for her in the girl's eyes.

Due to his attempts to use spiritual energy more efficiently, Naruto learned to separate it and physical energy. Some of his Personas had moves that used physical energy instead of spiritual. So, he developed a technique from it. It was far from perfect, but it allowed him to put a slight buffer between him and any attacks he noticed in time, decreasing the damage.

It saved Naru from the cut reaching her spine. But it still hurt like a bitch.

"Funny," came the unmistakeable voice. "I expected the ninja to be the one to push the whore out of the way, not the other way around."

Naru looked defiantly to their attacker, feeling like an idiot. She remembered Sensui's words, how there were _seven_ major suspects, and to not to dismiss anyone.

She then remembered Kyoko's words. How the suspects were _Doctor Kamiya_ and the six ex-shinobi.

They completely forgot about him, because he had been with them when they were given the list of suspects. Because Kyoko already trusted him, they gave him their trust too. Show how inexperienced they really were.

He was probably the first on Kakashi-sensei's list. It was probably why he sent them to the less-likely targets first, so he could investigate the doctor on his own with the one whose family was experienced with detective work while the other two drew his attention.

Well, they drew his attention, alright.

The Persona approached the girls, Naru pushing the trembling Sakura behind herself. The killer intent coming from the being was so thick and cold even a civilian would notice it, nevermind the chakra-trained duo it was being targeted at.

The creature pulled Naru's face closer, as if examining it. Naru's scowl turned into a snarl of anger as she stared defiantly in the creature's eyes.

"I don't remember seeing such a beauty like you before…" the doctor said with a smug grin, "not that I would target you usually, you are probably too high-end to be entranced by my looks and a few gifts like the others."

She slowly made a fist and charged her arm with chakra, expecting the doctor to notice and make the Persona attack at any time. Since it didn't, she supposed did not have ninja training. She kept staring at the Persona's eyes as it tried to scare her by licking a rusty but clearly sharp razor it took from its pocket.

Sakura moved a bit behind her, judging from the sound to get a kunai from the holster hidden by her clothes. Unfortunately that made the twisted Persona turn its head in her direction.

"Scarecrow!" the man ordered in an annoyed tone, his facial expression as if looking at something unpleasant. Almost instantly, the creature glowed a sickly green, and chains the same tone grew from the ground and connected themselves to Sakura's arms, legs and neck.

Naru wasted no time in taking advantage of the distraction, using the charged chakra to punch Jack Ripper under the chin, throwing it up.

"Cleave!" she ordered, and something that could only be described as a catgirl appeared among some blue mist right in front of Jack, using its claws to cut the other Persona's head off.

She wasted no time commemorating. It was a Persona, meaning it would be able to be ressummoned in no time. Kamiya was too far to be able to reach him before that happened, leaving her open to an attack if she tried.

Cursing, she grabbed Sakura by the waist and pulled her to a side-alley.

"Come on, run!" she urged the girl, pulling her as much as she could.

"I can't! These chains… they keep pulling my arms and legs down."

Naru quickly grabbed the girl to carry her… and almost tripped.

"What the…"

Her body felt heavy, and she was feeling dizzy. She felt like throwing up, and her heart was beating like a drum.

Nevertheless, she pushed forward, using her chakra to force her body to move faster than a civilian like Kamiya could.

She heard the footsteps following her through the alley as soon as she got to the other side. But, more than the footsteps, what she dreaded was the sick killing intent of the floating summon that was getting closer and closer.

**IIIII**

"What is going on there?" Sasuke asked, worry clear in his voice.

"Kamiya can summon a Persona like Naruto, apparently," Kakashi answered. "Also, he is the one we were looking for."

"You don't seem surprised," Sasuke pointed out. "Or worried."

"I had my suspicions. And as much as him having a Persona is troublesome, Naruto also has the ability, and he is a trained ninja against a civilian. Two, actually, thanks to your training with Gai Sakura is no weakling either."

"Too bad they are weakened."

The two turned to Hidan.

"Blight is a poisonous technique, and it hit the taller girl straight on. I'd be surprised if she is not poisoned. And the green magical chains bound the other girl's ability to move properly, which is why she had to be carried."

The other two pale, and the three start following where they believe the others went as fast as they could. It was an empty gesture since they were stuck outside reality, but they _needed_ to see it.

"How do you know this?" Sasuke asked, suspicious.

Hidan shrugged. "I've been doing my research after leaving the Cult of Jashin. Some Jashinists have awakened Personas and are using them to fulfil whatever desire they may have no matter the consequences."

"I thought Personas were a Yamanaka clan technique?" Kakashi said, confused.

"And I thought it was just a summon," contered Sasuke.

"It is a summon, but a special one. It summons your true self's power."

"Your true self?"

"Look, it is hard to explain, there is a whole side of psychology to do it, but here is the gist of it: we are divided in three parts: what we believe we are, what we are and what we show the world. Between what we believe to be, the ego, and what we are, there is a place most people abhor called your Shadow. Persona is what we show the world, shaped like an archetype. To _summon_ your Persona, though, you need to either face your Shadow, which is extremely dangerous, or have a supernatural sponsor who skips this step for you.  
Jashinists use a supernatural sponsor, their Lord Jashin."

"And since the Yamanaka technique had been sealed all we know nowadays is what Naruto told us, but judging from his description it probably involves facing the Shadow," Kakashi added.

"But Kamiya doesn't show the world his killer side, why is his Persona that terrifying?

"He is doing it now. To be able to summon your Persona you need to be showing your True Self, since you are literally ripping off your 'mask to withstand life's hardships' and summoning it to be by your side."

Sasuke understood now. So Naruto was basically summoning the real Naruto, not the one he used to pretend to be even to himself, as a second being. He felt the respect for Naruto grow. Kitsune was very versatile by itself, it a bit fragile, and the others—

"Wait, if you can only summon a Persona of your True Self, how can Naruto summon more than one?"

Instead of answering, Hidan looked at him as if he was crazy.

"It is true," Kakashi confirmed. "I've seen it myself."

Hidan's eyes widened. "I see. And are you _sure_ he awakened his Persona by battling his Shadow?"

"Well, no, but he did face something that took the shape of a version of him. Think it may be a sponsor instead?"

Hidan shook his head and stopped, him and Kakashi checking the marks on the ground. As he explained them while looking for the girls, the Kimon Tonkou was the reverse side of reality, but it was the reverse side of _reality,_ meaning that objects affected in reality would also be affected there. Not exactly, since things like the Ba Gua symbols they needed to find to exit it could be made to look like different ones to confuse the victims, but enough to track someone.

"He definitely faced his Shadow then. But to be able to summon more than one Persona, he would need to be a Wild Card, something you need to be contracted to a sponsor for.  
This… is bad…"

"Why?" Sasuke asked, getting annoyed. There were more important things to worry about, they could talk about this after they helped his teammates defeat the serial killer-wannabe. …Somehow, they'd think about how when they found them.

"The last time there was a Wild Card, all the world was destroyed but one city."

**IIIII**

Naru carried Sakura through the maze-like alleys of the town, using the experienced gained as a prankster avoiding his comeuppance to try to shake off their pursuer.

"Hahaha! Damn, you do know how to use your legs!" they heard the unmistakeably crazy voice of Kamiya still following them. "Too bad you decided to become a whore, but I bet plenty of your clients must appreciate them!"

"Damn it, why does he keep calling me that?" Naru said to herself, but Sakura heard her.

"He probably saw us leaving the red-light district and thought you were just a girl that worked there that volunteered to help me."

She looked at the girl she was carrying a bit, wondering what she meant… and if not for her occupied hands would have facepalmed.

"Ah, right, I'm still under the henge! I'm taking it off—"

"Don't!" Sakura interrupted. "He banished Sasuke-kun and Kakashi-sensei, but he has no idea what happened to Naruto. As long as he has to split his attention expecting him to come at any second, he isn't attacking us with all he had.

Naru gave a nod, and kept running. Not that she thought he was doing that big an effort to avoid Naruto, with his laughter and the sinister feeling of his Persona. She could bet that he would have awakened everyone if they weren't at the shopping area of the town, away from most actual houses.

Sakura felt a lurch as Naru suddenly jumped to the side above the boards covering a store building going under renovations. Without stopping, the blonde ran through the open area and forced open the door at the back, allowing them to climb the stairs and be safer in the storage.

"Right, I'm not feeling well, so I couldn't do this while we ran," she said, summoning Empusa. "Ok, if I am right this is a Bind magic, so this should work. Mutudi!"

Sakura felt an energy a lot like but still different from chakra surrounding her, and the green chains pulling her down disintegrated in front of her eyes.

She felt much more relieved… until the other girl vomited in front of her.

"I don't feel very good…"

Sakura quickly checked the back wound of the other and, as she expected, it was a deep purple that was spreading through the back.

"It poisons the chakra, not the body," Naru said. "I can do the same with Slime, so I know how it works. I'll have to walk it off."

Sakura nodded in understanding.

Without wasting any time, she pulled the taller girl behing some boxes a bit away from the door.

Just in time as the cold feeling of the distorted Persona reached them.

Sakura quickly climbed a stack of boxes near the door, doing her best to not be visible from the entrance.

She pulled out a kunai, preparing herself. The man seemed more in tune with his Persona than Naruto, judging by the way it had looked at her earlier when she went to grab a kunai and the man ordered the move with the spectral chains, but she was a trained kunoichi. They had been taken by surprise, but it was her turn to do the surprising.

Her hand trembled. She knew that she had been trained in how to kill, that it was probably the only way to stop the man with her skillset. But she felt sick of her stomach, her stomach felt like she would throw up. She was _not_ ready to take a life.

The footsteps approached. Sakura took note that the Persona did not go through the door… now that she thought about it, none of Naruto's seemed to be able to pass through objects. And he used one to cut this one's head off earlier. It _could_ be damaged!

But no, it was definitively back. That meant it only worked for a while, and if she wanted them to survive she needed to take care of it permanently. And that meant killing the caster.

She was ready. Kamiya kicked the door open, followed by Jack Ripper. She was ready… not really, but she did not have a choice. She gathered some chakra to jump behind him and pierce the back of his neck before he even noticed her—

"Pandemic Bomb."

Jack opened his maw, and an orange smoke spread from it and covered the whole room.

Kamiya do not even bother changing his expression as he turned to the body that fell by his side, gasping for air.

"Amazing, isn't it?" the mad doctor asked, glee clear in his voice. "Originally this artificial sickness only made the person weaker and extremely sluggish, which could be useful I suppose, but with some training and my medical knowledge I was able to rise it to its true potential."

He pushed Sakura to lie on her back with his foot, enjoying as she could barely move enough to breath.

"Of course, I do not usually bother to use it. Nothing feels better than to feel the light fade from someone's eyes through your hands on their throat as they struggle with all their might to survive, I found out. Using this really cheapens the experience, but since I figured out the only way your whore friend could enter here with you was if she herself had once been a kunoichi…"

Sakura's eyes where filled with tears, red from her struggle to keep breathing. She slowly tried pushing herself up, only for her arms to be too weak to withstand her weight.

"W… why…" Why was this happening? What had she done to deserve this? What had made someone so respected like he seemed to be in this town turn into this monster?

"Of course, being a kunoichi is worse than being a whore. A whore at least only sells her body, her morals and everything she ever had of decency for money, corrupting the people around her. A disease upon society, whose closest thing to a cure is excision."

He started walking around, smelling the air.

"Ah, the poison. It has such a… distinctive smell. As I was saying."

He went to the direction where the smell was strongest… and as Sakura feared, the right one where Naru had been hidden by her.

"Whores are a disease, but they lack one thing that makes them dangerous: they don't spread. Oh no, they grow, there are always new ones, but not like you ninjas, who take children of perfectly respectable families and turn them on one of your own, scum who care only for the money you make and allow the corrupt and the sick of the mind to spread their influence further. I kill, but I kill only the scum like you that corrodes our society. You corrupt everything you touch, kill everything that isn't corrupted, spreading your teaching and ruling everyone who isn't one through power alone. You make your own wars, not caring who is in the crossfire, be it us that you call 'civilians' as if we were worms or even children. And I heard that in some places even those amongst yourselves that have special abilities you kill to stomp out everything different even if it is beneficial."

Sakura cried silently, not strong enough to do anything else as Kamiya approached Naru. Her teammate would die and she could do nothing to help… And then _she_ would die, and no one would be able to help…

"Oh, someone bled a lot! That is _not_ healthy." Sobs escaped her mouth, the only sound in the place besides Kamiya's footsteps and his voice.

…Wait, his footsteps?

"Now, where could you have gone to…"

Hope filled Sakura. Naru was able to move! Naru had been able to escape!

But… where was she?

Despair suddenly filled her back. She had been abandoned to her luck. Not that she could blame Naruto, she had always pushed him away, no matter how friendly they tried to act now. They were both too hurt to fight properly. But Naru had been able to move, to escape, to cry for help. If she reached Kyoko, Kamiya was finished. She, on the other hand, had only been a dead weight most of the time, and not only on this mission. Before they were divided in teams, she barely took training seriously. After they were, could she really say she was doing much better? Naruto was looking for help for his failings, Sasuke-kun wanted to get stronger to fulfill his dreams… and all she wanted was to impress Sasuke.

What was she a kunoichi for?

Not that it would matter for long…

Suddenly she was roughly pulled out of her pity-party. Looking up, she was only able to see a fierce-looking Naru looking ahead of them in the direction… but she was different.

But she wasn't able to tell what was it, as the taller girl made a handsign and _jumped_ with her towards the depths of the storage.

**IIIII**

Naru was a mess, drifting in and out of consciousness. She knew enough to know this was bad, though.

She was already feeling bad from the poisoned cut, but now that she breathed that orange mist she was feeling so weak she couldn't move her body right. And she was pretty sure she had a fever.

She struggled, but was able to pay attention to his voice. An artificial sickness.

Well, Uzumaki Naruto, Naru, whatever, would not lose to some fake fever!

As quiet as she could, while Kamiya was monologuing, she summoned Pixie for a Dia. It wasn't much, but it was enough to give her back some strength.

Quietly, she moved around the boxes, leaving a clone behind. …She really should train more with them after this was over, they could be useful.

She looked around. Sakura was on the ground crying, but she didn't seem hurt.

She sent a signal to the clone, and it took position, behind some boxes on the most likely way Kamiya would take if he went back to Sakura, but the doctor seemed more focused on following the trail of blood drops she let fall from her back as she sneaked around.

Oh well. Quietly, the clone adjusted itself.

Kamiya didn't take long to figure out where she had gone. And so they met again, Naru with Sakura on her feet and Kamiya with a sickening smile on his face.

And then boxes fell on top of Kamiya.

Jack Ripper suddenly appeared, cutting the boxes to pieces in what Naru supposed was the Cleave technique, one quick, sharp cut she used earlier to cut its head off with Nekomata. But Naru didn't stay there just watching. Seeing a shadow approaching the twisted doctor from the side, she quickly summoned Forneus and sent a spell to the shadow.

The shadow was her Shadow Clone, and the spell was a Tarukaja, increasing the damage of the clone's punch to the doctor's face. Taken by surprise, he was thrown backwards and fell to the ground. Jack Ripper did not go down with him though, using his razor to cut the clone's neck and making it dispel.

"Shit!" the doctor cursed as he stood up, "The other ninja! Quick, Pandemic Bomb!"

As the desperate doctor stood up and the persona released the smog, Naru grabbed the downed girl.

"Shit, you're resilient, to not be affected by the sickness," the doctor said, looking at the still-standing Naru. Not really, just stubborn enough to move even with it.

But not as well as she could. If the Persona was sent to attack to kill her, instead of just weaken her so the doctor could do it himself, she was sure she would lose.

If only she could buy enough time to get Sakura out of the way and think of a plan… She needed…

A distraction!

Sasuke had called Naruto's Oiroke a distraction earlier, if he had something else he could use…

Kamiya, meanwhile, paid attention to her unsteady legs.

"But I can see the poison is still affecting you. Don't worry, I'll make the suffering end quickly."

She tried doing the same he had done earlier to Neji, summoning Forneus slowly behind them… but Jack just flipped and broke it before it could finish forming. Damn it! He was too fast, precise and attentive. If she could get rid of at least one of those, just enough to get Sakura out of the way, she could probably defeat him in a Persona battle…

Precision and attention… Yes, there was a way to distract him and all, but she didn't learn enough to use it well.

But maybe it was enough for this.

"Cleav—gah!"

Before he could finish the command, Naru used a genjutsu. It wasn't anything special, just a colored blob covering the vision. Extremelly amateurish, and very poorly done, any ninja worth their salt would kick it out before it even noticing its effect.

But Kamiya was a civilian. And that distinction made all the difference.

Jack still advanced in their general direction, but it was enough for Naru to evade it. She quickly summoned Empusa, sending a Bufu. The beam of energy covered the enemy Persona in ice, sending the sensation to Kamiya, not enough to break it but enough for him to stagger. Naru took advantage of it to jump back behind some of the boxes.

Making two clones, one of them henged in the sick Sakura and sent to one side, while the originals went the other way, Naru thought of a plan.

Reaching far enough to be hidden, she made a clone to guard Sakura. Said clone immediately turned back in Naruto, since, unlike the henged form Naruto had his ninja equipment.

Naru did not want to use more than one clone though. If Kamiya figured out there were more than three opponents, he would probably use Blight again, and if it hit Sakura in her condition she doubted the girl would survive.

Which reminded her…

"Dia!" she said in a low tone, summoning Pixie. For some reason, Shadow Clones couldn't use Persona.

Unfortunately it was useless. While Naru had been damaged by the poison, Sakura's inability to move was from the mad doctor's disease.

She took a kunai from the clone and nodded to herself as she stood up and went to meet the murderer. The clone could have fought instead, he had more weapons, but without a Persona it would be a two against one battle. And it's not as if he was much better – Persona poison affects the chakra instead of the blood, after all.

With a last Dia to keep herself standing, she walked silently, approaching the source of the footsteps and the angry snarl. She ignored all of the killer intent but the direction it came from, she already knew they planned to kill them after all.  
A Tarukaja and Rakukaja later, she jumped towards the enemy, not really caring if it was the Persona or the summoner.

It was the Persona.

She punched it in the throat, downing it for a bit, and evaded its clumsy attempt at a counter. Quickly, she passed by its side before it could recover, jumping for the doctor.

The doctor himself was clearly not a fighter, the way he trembled the knife in his hand as she got closer. Probably the reason he got confident enough he could fight both her and Sakura, and later Naruto, was his poison and disease. Against someone able to power through them with sheer willpower…

He was sent spinning from the reinforced punch. She was no Sakura-chan, but with that magical buff her punch could hurt just as much.  
She could only shiver imagining Sakura under a Tarukaja…

"Cleave!" ordered the man, bleeding from his mouth (Naru probably punched a tooth loose). She quickly turned around, blocking the energy-charged razor with the kunai. She could see it biting deep inside the metal, but the kunai held itself in existence.

No, she had no idea how it worked. But it worked, and that was enough for her right now.

"Bash!" she ordered back, and Slime shot itself with all its strength on the rising Kamiya, throwing him back to the ground. She was tempted to use Poismato show him how it felt, but since he wasn't a ninja that could be fatal.  
But while he was much weaker physically, his concentration was much stronger, and thus so was his Persona. It was strong and fast, making Naru use all her admittedly small experience in blocking and dodging. And hitting Kamiya was not helping much in this as much as it would help him if she was the one using the Persona to fight, although he had to actually order it to use the stronger attacks so at least there was that.

…Wait, why _wasn't_ she using her Persona to fight?

She kicked Jack Ripper back, just enough to disengage a bit, and passed her hand in front of her face, imagining spinning a card and changing it's image, thus changing Personas. Slime's resistance was for impact attacks, after all.

"Garu!" she ordered, and Kitsune appeared behind Jack Ripper, throwing a blade of wind towards his back. It hit, spreading black ichor on the ground.

But Kitsune was a defensive fighter, while she needed an offensive one to keep Jack Ripper occupied.

_Behind you!_

She threw herself to the side at the warning, but still got a cut on her shoulder for her distraction. Already in the momentum, she answered with a spinning kick to Kamiya's side, downing him again.

'Damn it! If I want to really defeat him, I really have to go to the person. He would be open if I got rid of his Persona for a bit, but it is too god leaving _me_ open.'

She went to the attack, punching him in the chest and taking his breath out. And as expected she had to jump to the side, Jack Ripper quickly left Kitsune behind to fight her together with Kamiya.

She needed a Persona that could keep up with Jack to keep it in place, she thought as she and Jack resumed their dance, Kitsune bothering Kamiya so it could not concentrate on using any special attacks.

Or that was the plan.

Suddenly, Kamiya's body poured a black mist, and Naru felt as if a part of her head was ripped off. A glance to the side and seeing the knife surrounded by blue mist confirmed it, Kitsune had been broken.

Before she could even think about summoning it again though, or even another, she had to jump to the side to avoid an attack as fast as Jack Ripper's. She could feel the physical energy pouring from it too, the sick doctor was clearly using it as she used chakra earlier to make himself faster and stronger.

Jumping on instinct to avoid an attack from the Persona from behind, she maneuvered to make both be in front of her instead of being flanked. That allowed her to see the two side to side, and her stomach sunk.

Jack Ripper eyes were the definition of insanity, as if hurting and killing were all the pleasures he needed in life. It was a killing machine, and never pretended to be.

Kamiya though, had something more than just that earlier. He seemed to view killing as a pleasurable chore, but a chore nonetheless. He saw his victims as lower than him, and it was a responsibility to kill them. It was like he was trying to convince himself that he was more than an amoral killer.

It was as if Kamiya admitted some of his darker side before, but not all of it. Instead of accepting who he was, he was making excuses. He had no idea how, though, since wasn't accepting it kind of a must to use your Persona?

Well, not anymore.

It seemed like the man had decided to embrace that side of his… but unlike Naruto, who controlled Kitsune by admitting his bad but holding himself to his good, Kamiya left himself at his bad's mercy… and not the Persona was the one in control.

And that was bad. And not just for Kamiya's mind.

She avoided another stab from the man, but the Persona was faster than before, cutting her chest. Made sense, whatever was holding it back was now gone.

She rolled under Kamiya's next attack, putting him between herself and Jack Ripper. The man was annoyed, but the Persona grinned…

And turned around, and Kamiya mimicked the grin.

Naru's eyes widened. Oh shit!

The direction he was looking at… how could he know?

"Blight!"

"No!" Naru could do nothing as the poisoned cutting wave advanced, breaking through the boxes on the way as if they were paper tissues.

She jumped on Kamiya, punching his face with all her strength. If she knocked him out fast enough, maybe it would dissipate!

Unfortunatelly, she could feel physical energy blocking his attack like a temporary armor, and he answered with a downward stab. She tried to block it, but…

On the way the kunai in her hand dissipated.

It went away out of nowhere. And if it didn't dispel by damage, then that meant it dispelled because the clone it was taken from disappeared.

Meaning that it had reached him. And Sakura-chan.

It didn't matter that she was poisoned, sick, with a cut back and a just stabbed shoulder. Naru didn't even _notice_ the stab. She was more than pissed, she was _livid_.

A hand covered in a red aura lifted the mad doctor by the face, and less than a second later he was kicked away, _hard_. He was sent flying, but not for long. A second Naru appeared behind him, kicking him upwards. The first ignored the red energy covering her clone, and her red eyes, and the whisker marks that weren't supposed to be there, just like the clone ignored those same things on her. That wasn't important right now. Instead, she jumped on the other's arms, and the other one made a platform with her hands under her foot and threw her upwards to meet Kamiya in the air. She punched him with a haymaker, making him hit the roof, before taking advantage of the spin from the recoil and axe-kicking him back down… right on the ascending fist of a third Naru.

Jack Ripper appeared on Kamiya's side, the hits breaking his concentration earlier. Yet Kamiya kept smiling, that creepy smile of the insane.

Not that Naru minded. That only made his face even more puncheable…

Then her eyes widened.

**IIIII**

Sakura rolled on the ground, her head spinning. Struggling, she looked up, and her eyes widened.

In front of her, cut in two, was the body on Naruto.

No, not the body. He was still alive.

He looked in her direction, smiled… and both parts dissolved in smoke and chakra.

A look to the ground between them explained it. Whatever caused that, Naruto's clone had been able to see coming, but was not good enough to escape or stop it. Instead, he pushed her away as far as he could and used his body as a shield.

She apparently rolled for a bit in the dust, but she had more important things to worry about than her appearance right now.

She stood up on trembling legs. That artificial disease was nasty, but Naruto needed her help.

Or so she thought.

The three Narus moved like a blur to her, beating Kamiya like a ragdoll. But he seemed more annoyed than hurt. She wasn't in her best, but she could swear he was making a chakra shield whenever he was hit to block the damage.

So she went to attack him by surprise. Grabbing a kunai from her pouch, she slowly walked behind him.

She could feel Naru's eyes widening at seeing her—wait, were they red? No, they were definitely blue now. This disease was making her see things…

"What's wrong?" she heard… Jack Ripper? say. "Was that all you could do?" She didn't need to see its face, the mocking tone making his twisted smile clear enough in her head.

The clones dispelled, and she could see that Naru's legs were woobly. The poison was clearly still affecting her. Making the clones was probably a mistake.

But the opponent was paying attention to her, not to Sakura.

She jumped.

She ignored the Persona. She had seen it be beheaded earlier and it was back here. She went past it and straight to the doctor, aiming for his back.

And he turned around and backhanded her back to the ground.

"Agi!"

"Gaaaah!" was screamed by both summoner and Persona as a fireball hit the first.

**IIIII**

"I see," said Naru in a confident voice. "Looks like you are weak to fire, uh?"

In truth, Naru wasn't really that confident. The poison was still coursing through her chakra pathways and affecting her insides, damaging her organs. She had some extra spiritual energy, but if she changed Personas to Pixie to use Dia and convert it to healing she would leave herself open to an attack.

But she found out the opponent's weakness. That had to count for something.

She jumped between the two, Agathion distracting them by forcing them to avoid the fireballs. As quickly as she could she swept Sakura from the ground, taking her away from the two.

However… there was nowhere to hide her anymore.

The boxes (and the shelves holding them) had mostly already been destroyed by the Blight. It was kinda big of a store, but not so much to be able to escape the two without them to hide behind.

But Naru got an idea.

She was poisoned. She was almost out of energy. She was for some reason still transformed in a female. But she was still a trained ninja.

A trained ninja that would have barely any trouble jumping from a window.

As if following her train of thought though, something _big_ flew over her head and fell between them and the closest window.

Naru could only blink surprised as Kamiya stood up, then looking behind her to see Jack Ripper still in a throwing position.

Those two are crazy!

No time to worry about that! She quickly threw Sakura to roll on the ground, putting her out of the way, and started avoiding their attacks, Agathion doing its best to hit the two. However, despite them clearly suffering the burns, they only attacked more desperately to kill her.

"You know…" Kamiya said suddenly, between slashes, surprising Naru because she _really_ did not thing there was anything up there anymore from the way they were acting, "there is no reason we have to deal with you first besides you getting on our way. Hell, if you take advantage of it right you can even find help with the time we will take to deal with your little friend properly."

"Go to hell," was Naru's only answer, besides trying even more ferociously to attack. She was her friend! She would **never** turn her back on any of them!

Kamiya shrugged. "Suit yourself. Tetanus Cut!"

Naru turned around with a curse on her lips and prepared herself to avoid the attack from the Persona… Only for said Persona to abandon the battle.

It was going for Sakura!

With a burst of chakra she didn't know she still had in her, she threw herself between the fallen girl and the blade, gaining a second cut on her back. She could also _feel_ the sickness from before spreading through her, somehow.

Funny, it was only then that she noticed she wasn't feeling sick ever since she summoned those Shadow Clones…

"Hah, such a shame… you people who pretend you are so altruistic sicken me. But it has its uses, oh yes. You either admitted how selfish you really are or let yourself be killed instead of… oh, I am sorry, _together with_ the kunoichi. And guess what: it is too late for take-backs. Scarecrow!"

Green chains burst from the ground as if summoned by magic, holding Naru in place. As much as she struggled she could not move.

"Under the effects of Scarecrow, you cannot escape anymore," Kamiya explained, his twisted smile stretching his face. "So stop trying and failing to fight back and die with some dignity."

He slowly wrapped his arms around Naru's neck, savoring the feeling of his hands pressing her throat.

Naru answered by grabbing his face and pounding in on the ground.

"Escaping and fighting back are two completely different things, asshole!"

Furious, the mad man grabbed his knife and went to stab Naru on the forehead.

She tried to avoid it, even just lean to the side a bit, but the chains held her in place.

The bind magic was for denying escaping, no matter if it was the battle or even just an attack.

She was low on chakra, no matter how much of it, or even just the physical part, she tried gathering, she doubted it would be enough to stop a knife to the face.

No time to summon a Persona.

She was dead.

The knife touched her forehead.

The knife was then pulled back by a despairing Kamiya, who used both hands to cover his bleeding throat.

He walked backwards, resting his back on a window. A small fox followed him.

Kitsune? How?

The Persona jumped on the man, pushing him through the window and to fall outside.

The henge dispelled. Naruto fell on his knees, shocked by what happened.

If that was really Kitsune… then…

He blacked out.

**IIIII**

Kakashi approached Naruto and Sakura, followed by Sasuke.

Observing the scene, they noticed an animal trail made by the bloob on the ground.

"How?" asked Kakashi. He and the others had been using a kunai to watch the battle, even though the people on reality could not see them. "He did not have time to summon it. Not that I'm complaining"

"May have summoned by his wish to live," said Hidan.

"What, so his will to live was so great he was able to summon his Persona even without concentrating?" asked Sasuke.

"Yeah, it is said that if you have the potential naturally then that may be enough to put them in contact. Since he already were able to summon his, his potential was never in doubt."

"Naturally, you mean besides having a sponsor?"

"You don't need the potential to summon it with a sponsor. You need it to face your Shadow though. Some need help to accept it, others like your teammate are able to do it by themselves, others will never be able to. It is not so rare, just unusual, like having a wind innate proficiency in the Land of Fire."

Sasuke hummed. So one or two of the Uchiha may have been able to summon theirs, but that was still not enough to save them? Yeah, looking at the way Naruto struggled against a civilian with that power there was more to it than just having it…

"If you don't mind Sasuke, could you carry Sakura?" interrupted Kakashi. "Naruto may have been able to fight, but he is in a worse state."

"Hn," Sasuke nodded. He hoped the girl didn't read too much in this…

**IIIII**

Inside the unconscious boy, the none-tailed fox huffed. He could think of many things it would do different. Other ways to fight, other ways to protect the girl, _many_ other, more efficient and safer ways his "host" did not think about.

For example, if he was so worried about the girl one of his first actions would be creating a clone to escape with her and get help from the police officer while he fought the murderous man by himself.

He had also many techniques to weaken his opponent and to reinforce himself. He did not exactly need to do one or the other.

Of course, most of his plans involved killing the man much earlier, so much of what his host did or did not do would have been useless anyway.

But, in the end, it did not matter. He did not really care for the boy's actions, or what he wished or wished not to protect.

He was just bored and watching his host life was the only kind of entertaining he had.

That and making up stories in his head. Man, he wished he could find a way to write…

His musing were interrupted though, as small steps were heard entering his chamber.

It was a small, two-tailed fox. Looked like an usual kit, if not for the number of tails. But Kurama knew the truth.

"He may not have noticed consciously, but we did," said the fox, in a sad tone. "I thought it would be only fair to thank you."

The nine-tailed one was surprised. If from what he heard the kid say to his friends was right, this young kit was the boy's true feelings.

It stood silent as the kit melancholically left the room, as if something terrible had just happened.

Something worse than a first kill, that is.

What was _that_ about?

**IIIII**

**For those that didn't figure out, the list of suspects was based on Yuyu Hakusho's Sensui Seven. Before anyone mentions how Kamiya wasn't that attractive like Sakura reacted, he appeared wildly different in the epilogue, in what I believe is the artist's version of an attractive non-bishonen. And yes, the personalities were altered a bit, but I tried using the YYH ones as inspiration.**

**So, what did you guys think of the action? To be honest, even though it was just as I planned it to be, the ending of the fight seemed to me like it had something lacking… Suggestions?**

**Persona fans who figured out the meaning of the centered sentence, what did you think? Was it a good way to merge the universes?**


End file.
